Thailand's garment and textile industries must adapt themselves among economic crises by strengthening supply-chain systems and promoting Asean as an alternative market, according to a recent seminar.

In the seminar "Future of Thailand's Textile Industry: Crisis

or Opportunity" held by the Of-

fice of Industrial Economics and

the Thailand Textile Institute,

the institute's executive director

Virat Tandaechanurat said the

garment and textile industries

faced tough competition from

China, particularly in the US

market.

He added that Thailand enjoyed entire production plants from upstream to downstream to take advantage of its rivals. Hence, producers should create a cluster so that they can reduce imports from other countries.

Besides establishing the cluster

in Thailand, both the government

and the private sector should co-operate with other countries in Southeast Asia to boost their competitiveness against China, said

Chen Namchaisiri, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries' textile club.

He said the National Federa-

tion of Thai Textile Industries had promoted cooperation with four other national textile associa-

tions under the Asean Federation of Textile Industries (AFTEX).

The other four associations

are the Federasi Industri Tekstil Indonesia, the Malaysian Tex-

tile Manufacturers Association,

the Confederation of Garments Exporters of the Philippines,

and the Textile and Garment

Manufacturers' Association of Singapore.

He added that they will hold an "Asean Source It" exhibition in Shanghai next year to promote the region as another alternative textile market.

The region will be positioned to be a unique market and won't compete with China in terms of cheap prices, he added.

He said the countries would

focus on creating differentiated value-added goods together with boosting productivity.

The Office of Industrial Eco-

nomics forecasts that textile and garment exports will grow by 3-5 per cent next year thanks to the

safeguard measures of the US

and Europe against China and

the possibility of signing a free-

trade agreement with Japan.

The textile industries announced an export value of US$2.76 billion (Bt98.8 billion) in 2005, up only 5.3 per cent from US$2.62 billion in 2004.

However, they cite negative

factors are the image of their in-

dustry for the financial market and low plant productivity.

Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul

 The Nation