South China Treasures Revealed: Know Before And Get Rich Before Others

Monday September 03, 2018

At CentralWorld on 3 September 2018, the Ministry of Commerce, Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP), and Department of Foreign Trade (DFT) collaborated with the Institute of New Trade Entrepreneurs Development and Post Today to organise a seminar under the heading “South China Treasures Revealed: Know Before And Get Rich Before Others”.

Honoured by experts in the Chinese market to share opportunities to enhance the potential and cooperation of Thailand-China, along with adjusting the strategy to invade Southern China by the Minister of Commerce, Mr. Sonthirat Sontijirawong, chairman of the ceremony, gave a special lecture. He said China is an important market because China has a population of 1,300 million people and China is a huge market to support Thai agricultural products. The Ministry of Commerce therefore aims to drive Thai fruits into every province of China, in order to support fruit production from Thailand in every season, whether it is durian or longan. These are popular in the Chinese market through Southern China, linked to all Chinese provinces such as Kunming and Pingxiang. This is a key strategy that the Ministry of Commerce will use to drive Thailand to become a fruitful superpower and see Thai entrepreneurs use the opportunity that the government created and cooperated with to drive fruit and other products through various channels.

The strategies are to drive exports to find new markets and preserve the original market by focusing on expanding new markets that penetrate more secondary cities and driving trade through e-commerce including promoting investment in foreign countries in order to create opportunities and drive Thailand to the world of fruit in a sustainable way.

Ms. Banjongjitt Angsusingh, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, said: "For the export value of Thailand during January-June 2018, the value is increased. China has become a commercial centre of Asia. Kunming is a promising market for imported products and services from around the world, especially the products produced by foreign entrepreneurs who have invested in Kunming quickly, becoming the number one major retail market in China."

"South China, Kunming and Pingxiang are an important strategic locations that can link CLMVT countries with China’s One Belt One Road, considered a new trade route with potential to connect Asia to Europe. This causes the export of Thai products to have more channels and reach out to new consumers in each province with different consumption behaviours. Department of International Trade Promotion, Ministry of Commerce, has set a strategy to reach the Chinese market by expanding the secondary market in many cities such as Hai Nan, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Sichuan and Shanghai, through the exhibition channel and inviting Chinese entrepreneurs to join road shows in Thailand, such as THAIFEX-World of Food Asia 2018, including an exhibition plan in each province in collaboration with many leading department stores in China to bring Thai SME entrepreneurs to enter the Chinese market. In addition, Thailand and China have established the Thailand-China Free Trade Agreement (Thailand-China Free Trade Area), which has contributed to Thailand getting more trade benefits with China, whether it is the export of goods or import of raw materials, especially in certain industries in Thailand that need to be importing raw materials from China which may have a production base or parts factory in China, which throughout the trade route is considered an opportunity for Thai entrepreneurs, especially SMEs in reaching new markets with potential through the 60 million people of Thailand to the 250 million people of CLMVT to over 1,300 million people in China. Therefore it is an important channel for SMEs to grow and access in the Chinese market as well.”

As Thailand and the Republic of China have a long-term relationship as trading partners, China's economy has continued to grow and products from Thailand are interesting to Chinese investors who recognise their quality. Therefore it is not surprising why there are many opportunities and channels for Thailand to invest in China. But Thai investor's investments in China may not be very easy. For this reason, in order to prevent unexpected mistakes, experts and investment gurus in China have suggested that investing in China requires awareness of the trading situation and conditions. This is the essence and knowledge that seminar participants received at “South China Treasures Revealed: Know Before And Get Rich Before Others”. This event had many qualified investors sharing experiences. Mr. Vikrom Kromadit, Chairman of the Thai-Chinese Business Council, gave a lecture on “Opportunities, Potentials and Thai-Chinese Collaboration”. Ms. Chantira Vivatrat, Director General of the Department of International Trade Promotion, gave a lecture on “Targeting the Potential of Markets in South China (Strategies for Delving into Second-tier Cities)” and ended with a discussion on the topic “Embattling and Adjusting Strategy to Invade South China”.

 Top 5 popular Thai exports to China are plastic pellets, rubber products, chemical equipment, computer components and Cassava products respectively.

5 Chinese business trends

• Chinese business trends are consistent with the global business trends. The market trend in China is unpredictable because it is consistent with the global business trend, especially the trend of health and business for the elderly, as the population in China has continuously increased.

• Quality products & eco-friendly products. China has adjusted the production view in China, including new Chinese consumer behaviour because in the past China has tried to remove the image that produces below-quality standard products and cheap products. For this reason, the Chinese government began to focus on creating a new image, allowing China to be a country that produces quality products that meet standards with support from various laws, which resulted in changing consumer behaviour. Chinese people began to choose the products that are more environmentally friendly without considering the cheap price as before.

• Chinese people love animals and are interested in pets. Now the pet market in China has become a large market not different from other markets because Chinese behaviour now does not only feed animals but raises animals as friends and elderly society needs friends to relax more and avoid loneliness.

• China became the largest car market in the world. At present, China is the number one car producer and distributor in the world. The Chinese government has a policy to support environmentally friendliness and energy-saving along with seeking other alternative energy, thus providing an opportunity for automotive related products in the market. In the future it is expected that China will be a large production base for automobiles and will continue to be the centre of automobile production with advanced technology at the global level.

• The Western world economy is an opportunity for China. It is time for China to turn the global economic crisis into opportunity by making the most of the period where the United States and Europe are experiencing economic recovery and changing the interest in investing from the Western world to the East. This is the best time for China to attract global automotive companies to invest and transfer production technology knowledge to China.

Points of view and expert opinions in this seminar can be summarised as advice to create business opportunities in the South China for Thai investors in three ways as follows:

• Focus on exporting in aptitude industries. Besides the five most popular export products mentioned above, investing in China should focus on Thailand’s seafood products, canned food, frozen food, health food products and organic products, Hala products, ready-to-eat food, and snack foods, as well as restaurant businesses.

• Create businesses awareness with technology. Thai SMEs should not trade products with China in the old, traditional way because now new trading technology has entered a very high commercial role in China such as no cash payment by changing to online payment. Meanwhile, Chinese consumers turned to online shopping and found that the motive for buying top products is the system to facilitate viewing and paying.

• Create a good image for the export of frozen fruit products by finding a joint venture that specialises in the Chinese market, considering transportation time and paying attention to the safety quality standards of food from both Thai and Chinese agencies.

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