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Thailand: TNSC predicts income loss of B500bn
Exporters are estimated to lose as much as 500 billion baht worth of income from the strong baht this year, with small-scale entrepreneurs hit the hardest.
According to Visit Limlurcha, vice-chairman of the Thai National Shippers’ Council, exporters have lost about 200 billion baht worth of income from the impact of the strong baht in the first five months of the year.
“If the baht still maintains its gain while responsible agencies have not come up with any measures to rein in the capital inflow, we believe Thai exporters, most of which are small and medium-sized ventures, will lose 400-500 billion baht worth of income,” Mr Visit said.
“This will eventually affect the capability of many exporters to pay bonuses or extra rewards, as well as overall spending power.”
The baht averaged 32.48 to the US dollar in 2018 and is now moving in a range of 30.50-30.60.
This is tantamount to the loss of two baht per one dollar in foreign exchange, Mr Visit said.
He urged the government to help ease detection and legal actions against high cube containers with a height exceeding 4.2 metres, saying such large containers are internationally used and have relatively lower operating costs than smaller ones.
In a related development, Chutima Bunyapraphasara, the acting commerce minister, said on Wednesday that her ministry assigned the International Trade Promotion Department to map out an export stimulus plan for the second half to push for export growth of 3% as targeted.
Trade promotion agencies should focus more on each region of the world, each country and each city, including secondary cities, she said.
The department should also beef up facilitating and stimulating Thai investment overseas, Ms Chutima said.
For the US market, she suggested the promotions focus on individual industries, especially those that benefit from the trade dispute.
Public relations should also be beefed up to promote the image of Thai products, services and brands abroad, she said.
For the Chinese market, the focus should be on items in high demand from consumers such as halal products, pet-related goods, health and beauty, and services.
More roadshows and matchmaking events should be held in secondary cities such as Kunming, Xiamen, Nanning and Qingdao.
For the Asean market, Ms Chutima proposed networking with Chinese businesses that relocate their production bases to the region in order to support Thai products.
She urged high-ranking officials to accelerate underlining relations with their counterparts to expand trade and investment cooperation in South Asia.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1706522/tnsc-predicts-income-loss-of-b500bn