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Published on February 28, 2008

The ministry floated the target in a meeting yesterday with heads of Thai trade centres in overseas offices.

Viroon Tejapaiboon, deputy commerce minister, yesterday said Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan had ordered the heads of trade centres to work closely with exporters to ensure the growth.

Despite the world economic slowdown together with the US sub-prime mortgage problem, Thailand should not worry, he said. Instead, it should seek more new export markets to compensate for export delays in traditional markets.

New export markets such as China, India, Africa and Russia had been reported as having high growth opportunities of 20-30 per cent. In addition, exports to the US market could be expanded instead of the negative growth of earlier predictions, Viroon said.

Viroon said political stability should convince foreign investors and traders to keep connections with Thailand. In addition, the government would soon conduct a roadshow overseas to draw more foreign investment.

Kessiri Siripakorn, minister at the Commercial Affairs Office in Washington, said exports to the US market should grow by 5 per cent to US$20 billion (Bt645 billion), an increase from the previous forecast of 2 per cent.

"It is expected that the US government has managed to ease the problem while its other policies to enhance consumer purchasing power will encourage more imports," she said, adding that Thai goods with export potential include food, particularly shrimp, and gems and jewellery.

In addition, US importers will turn to import more Thai goods after experience with low-quality products from China. Last year, Chinese exports to the US grew 20 per cent while exports from Thailand dropped by 1.8 per cent.

The Nation