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'We want to improve Thailand's image to attract trade'

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Every year, Thailand's BIFF & BIL sees a large number of apparel manufacturers visiting the fair. Yuttana Silpsarnvith, TGMA speaks to Fashionatingworld about the activities conducted by TGMA to promote Thai trade.

 

What are the highlights of the show?

We had three activities this time. One was the Designer Room, where around 50 new designers showcased their design strength. Second was the AFF conference where six countries were invited to have fashion shows, this is a big conference. Thirdly we showcased the next season’s trends for Thailand. The fair is organized by DITP. TGMA takes care of apparel manufacturers and exhibitors the rest are our members for whom we PR help them connect with buyers.

Do you see more buyers from Japan?
There has been an increase in orders from Japan and ASEAN countries like Singapore and Malaysia.

What was the visitor turnout? Has the number of exhibitors decreased?
Exhibitors have decreased because of Thailand’s political problems. Businessmen, tourists, foreigners do not want to come. For example Hong Kong government had given out a cautionary note saying it is critical, meaning they do not want people to come here.

BIFF & BIL 2014 had 15 per cent less visitors compared to last year. Political problems and demonstrations were the main reasons. But this is better than our forecast which was 20 to 30 per cent less. The first day saw 15 per cent less turnout. Local visitors were less, but there was an increase in foreign visitors, especially suppliers. There were many Japanese customers and this time 12 Japanese brand had booths for the first time. These are brands who want to expand to Thailand and Asia. They said it was successful and next time they will have 20 booths for Japan. Korea too is interested. This year they had eight booths but next year they will come with more textiles and aim to expand here. Japan is a big buyer with textile association, apparel association and fashion association. All combined the figure was more than 300 Japanese.

In terms of business how is Thailand industry doing?
We are talking about relocation of apparel industry especially big and medium size factories. More than 40 companies have shifted from Thailand to Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Is it a good or bad sign?
The positive fallout is, we can expand our business because we do not have much human resource, people are getting old for production and we pay higher wages compared to other neighbouring countries so we move out, use cheaper resource and then export. The company remains in Thailand, we keep the R & D material, supply chain in Thailand and then send out and export from there. We have FTA with ASEAN countries. Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar get the GSP from Europe for everything. So there is zero duty to EU and 5 per cent duty to US compared to Thailand. Thailand is about 10 per cent for EU and 30 per cent for US. Being in Cambodia we can take advantage of this.

What is the size of Thai apparel industry?
We export apparels worth $3,000 million and textiles worth $4,600 million. We only source the local consumption and import textile fabric especially functional fabrics. Automotive textile, functional textile for uniform, high performance polyester etc are imported mainly from Korea and Taiwan. We are waiting for Thai-India FTA and awaiting (BIMSTEC) which is FTA together which will happen next year. Thailand falls in Asia and South Asia as well. India is good in cotton, mercerized cotton, yarn dye and we wish to share it for dyeing, fibre.

What kind of growth do you anticipate for Thailand’s textile and apparel industry?
In the next five years, we have to relocate medium and small size quickly. The first two or three years it is the big size that has to move out but in the next five years it is going to be the smaller size factories that will move out. We have to facilitate them.

After relocation, we need to develop trading firms, R&D in Thailand, we need to develop the product and development centre, training centre in Bangkok. So customers will come to Thailand and place orders, develop in Thailand but the production will be done outside. The turnover will come to Thailand as they are Thai owners.

Has Thailand made investments in these countries?
Thailand will invest mainly in CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) for apparel companies. The company invests in CLMV because the customer is in EU. American customers move to Vietnam. Korea also wants to invest more in textile fibres in Thailand as we are good in automotive business. One big company from Japan wants to make automotive textiles here. Korea wants to make a printing company here and another from Japan wants to start a dyeing mill.

How is your business with China?
Not so good. We dropped 6 to 8 per cent in import and export. We tried to increase the number of exports with China for two years but were not successful because of border trade between Laos, Myanmar and with Thai connecting to South China they grow very fast. They may go to Thailand without showing the number of imports. It’s a grey market and this number is increasing from China to all these countries especially to Thailand.

Could you tell us about the changes taking place in global sourcing?
Sourcing is going to get complicated because of FTAs between countries. Canada and Australian customers are now coming back to Thailand. They are moving out from India and China as China is not cheap. Many new customers are starting to find new sources.
Countries like India, Thailand, Japan, Korea, ASEAN should collaborate and get stronger. ASEAN part plus three is China, Japan, Korea and other three is Australia, New Zealand and India. The talks are on for general business with FTA and dilation of bigger group and countries. Asia will become big once FTA is in place. It is global trend we have to compete with America and EU finally.

What are the other activities of TGMA?
We arranged the AFF conference, hosted AFF and arranged six seminars, four workshops in the FTPC board. Business matching is also done. Independently we have trade missions. This year we have four country trade missions to Japan, Korea, Indonesia and Philippines. The objective is to sell Thailand’s products and boost production. Our team is present in Interstoff and we have seminars almost every two weeks in our office.

What are your plans for next BIFF & BIL?
We will try to make BIFF & BIL more interesting. Thailand’s image is not good right now, we want to improve that first.

 
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