The Ministry of Commerce has unveiled a plan to penetrate markets in the second half of the year, focusing on specific regions, countries, and cities. They are preparing to organize numerous activities, including teams targeting specific products, identifying target customer groups, collaborating with retailers and importers to promote Thai products, and enhancing trade services while encouraging investment. They are confident that this will help achieve the annual export growth target of 3%.

           On July 3, 2019, Ms. Chutima Bunyaprasertsri, the Deputy Minister of Commerce, announced that she has assigned the Department of International Trade Promotion to develop a plan to drive exports in the second half of 2019, aiming to ensure that Thailand's exports for the year meet the target of 3%. The strategy will focus on penetrating markets by region, country, and even down to specific cities and secondary cities with potential, to create opportunities for expanding Thai exports, enhancing trade services, and promoting Thai investments abroad.

           In the Americas, the focus will be on expanding markets by industry, particularly those benefiting from the trade war, targeting medium and small importers, which number around 200,000. The strategy includes market segmentation, enhancing the image of Thai products, services, and brands to create a ripple effect among consumers. For the Chinese market, the emphasis will be on promoting target products that are in demand, particularly health and beauty products, and service businesses, while penetrating secondary cities through activities with importers and department stores.

           For marketing Thai products, especially in the ASEAN market, the focus will be on building networks with businesses from China that have relocated their production bases to ASEAN, to support Thai products in entering the value chain and promoting Thai investments in ASEAN, particularly in CLMV countries, to take advantage of GSP for exports to the U.S. and the European Union. The strategy also includes penetrating secondary cities to promote local products in the ASEAN market, enhancing cross-border trade, and pushing for new product exports, as well as promoting the image of Thai products and services.

           In South Asia, efforts will be made to strengthen high-level relationships to promote cooperation, utilizing FTAs to reduce barriers and tariffs, and targeting eight states and eight cities that are secondary cities in India. In Latin America, the focus will be on exchanging visits of high-level trade delegations to increase trade and investment opportunities. In East Asia and Australia, plans are in place to connect provincial cooperation between Thailand and Japan. The Middle Eastern market will emphasize organizing trade delegations, participating in trade shows, and finding ways to reduce logistics costs. In Africa, the focus will be on strategic economic partnerships and penetrating landlocked countries.

           In Europe, the emphasis will be on economic partnerships, collaborating with the private sector in the UK and France to promote SME products in the market, publicizing Thai food through bloggers and influencers, pushing local products into the market through Lotus stores, and collaborating on product development with innovation and targeting specific groups. In the Russian and CIS markets, support will be provided for negotiations on the Thailand-Eurasian Economic Union FTA, promoting public-private cooperation, and building networks for importers and logistics.

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