Thai exporters, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), must rapidly adapt to the reality of a stronger baht if they want to stay competitive, Pakorn Partanapat, executive vice president at Kasikornbank, said on Friday.
At a seminar on “2011 economy: Direction of Thai SMEs” this morning, Mr Pakorn said the global economic slowdown, especially in the US and Europe, has resulted in a large inflow of foreign capital to countries in the Asian region, including Thailand. This had strengthened their currencies.
Kasikorn Research Centre forecast that the Thai baht would strengthen to 28.30 baht to the greenback in the first half of the year and there was a possibility it could reach 28.00 baht in the second half.
The senior banker said exporters must accept that there is no possibility that value of baht will weaken to 30 baht to US dollar again. Therefore, the y must rapidly reposition themselves to take this into account.
He suggested exporters seek new export markets, particularly in Asean countries which have high economic growth, and make export deals in baht, instead of dollars, and try to cut production costs.
source : bangkokpost.com
