Issue 50

The DITP has pioneered and promoted e-commerce for Thai SMEs since 2011. This year, Thaitrade.com received the prestigious WSIS 2016 Prize from the United Nation’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for its continuous efforts.

E-commerce is growing. In 2015, the e-commerce market in Thailand was worth over US$58.4 billion. According to Accenture and AliResearch, Business to Customer (B2C) trade worldwide will be worth US$1 trillion by 2020 when it’s expected that over 900 million people will buy products and services online.

“Today, SMEs face numerous challenges in adapting themselves to doing business in this digital age,” says DITP Director General Malee Choklumlerd.

The DITP has promoted Thaitrade.com since 2011 to help SMEs keep up with online trade. One significant measure was Thaitrade.com’s Smart Online SMEs (S.O.S.) project, which won the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS Prize 2016) in the category of Capacity Building on May 3. The S.O.S. project consisted of a series of seminars held across Thailand on topics such as the use of photography and writing to make products more appealing to customers, one-on-one consultation sessions, and online marketing techniques using search engines.

“The most important factor that led to the S.O.S. Project winning the WSIS Prize was making SMEs aware of the importance of keeping up with consumer behaviour and new technology in the ever-changing digital landscape,” says Choklumlerd.

In addition, the DITP has encouraged successful SMEs to act as case studies to benefit others. “The success stories of experienced entrepreneurs give inspiration to those participating in our project. We’ve received a lot of letters from them thanking us for being a part of their success,” she adds.

S.O.S. has helped develop the online trading capability of 2,703 Thai companies. In surveys, SMEs state that the knowledge and skills gained from the seminars have enabled them to increase exports. Many have received their first export orders via Thaitrade.com.

From the outset, Thaitrade.com has offered to help SMEs in three areas: site engine optimization through the use of photographs and content; the use of success stories and banners on websites; and encouraging participation in activities to increase B2C trade. One such example is SOOK (Small Order OK), a complete e-commerce solution that enables buyers and sellers to trade anywhere and anytime. It’s due to be launched in August 2016.
“We also focus on building partnerships with international online service providers such as Google, Alibaba, Paypal and Amazon to create a network for Thai SMEs,” says Choklumlerd.
According to the DITP, Thaitrade.com has 18,358 shops selling over 240,825 products. Of the 18,533,299 visitors from 237 countries, 97,676 have placed firm orders. Food and beverages, clothing and beauty products are the most popular products, while most buyers come from India (14%), China (7%), Vietnam (4%), the US (3%) and Pakistan (2%).

Moreover, the DITP has held business matching activities for over 3,012 businesses generating over 1.9 billion baht (US$ 54 million) in trade since 2011.

With the continued support of the DITP, Thailand’s SMEs look set to capitalize on the e-commerce bonanza for many years to come.

Words by Pimsirinuch Borsub

Issue 48

The owner of Pranda Group believes Thailand’s gem and jewelry industry has a bright future, and should do more to attract major buyers.

The strength of Thailand’s gems and jewelry industry rests in its ability to import quality raw materials from sources around the world and to turn them into a wide range of designs to meet customers’ different needs. This is the view of Prida Tiasuwan, the owner of Pranda Group.

“Forty years ago, I realised that Thai craftsmanship was very good at gemstone cutting, and that it would be better if I could add more value to those gemstones. Therefore, I set up a factory to produce jewelry,” he says.

Currently, Pranda Group has the capacity to produce 10 million pieces of jewelry per year at factories in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. The group also has its own brands including Prima Gold, Julia and Merii, targeting markets in Asia and the Middle East.

“Our expertise is in producing jewelry collections for the upper-middle class. Pranda’s key customers are in the US, EU and Asia, and we are seeing growing demand in ASEAN countries as well,” says Tiasuwan.

In the meantime, Tiasuwan believes Thailand should strengthen its advantages, for example, by encouraging Thai jewelers to explore gemstones sources around the world, and bring those quality raw materials back to the country.

“Thailand has a very strong gem and jewelry cluster,” he says. “We have gemstones traders, skilled workers, jewelry designers and qualified laboratories to guarantee the quality of jewelry products,” says Tiasuwan.

With all these strengths, Pranda’s founder believes that Thailand can maintain its position as one of the most important gems and jewelry centres in the world.

Over 30,000 visitors from around the world visited the 2,600 exhibitors at the 57th Bangkok Gem and Jewelry Fair, held by DITP at Impact Muang Thong Thani from February 24 to 28. However, Tiasuwan thinks more can be done in order to encourage potential buyers.
“Switzerland is a good example for a tradeshow like this,” he says. “During the fair period [Baselworld], it offers visa-free travel and duty-free for foreign visitors participating in the fair.”

For more information, visit www.pranda.com
Words by: Somhatai Mosika 

Issue 49

International experts joined to discuss the factors shaping economic growth in the AEC+3 countries.

Keynote speakers and panelists at the AEC+3 Business Forum 2016: Reshaping a New Paradigm for Growth debated how the AEC countries, China, South Korea and Japan can work together to increase economic growth in March.

Co-organised by Kasikorn Bank and Financial Times, the forum was held on March 16 at the Plaza Athenee, Bangkok.

According to Nielsen Forecasting, AEC’s middle class population will reach 400 million people by 2020 compared with 190 million people in 2012. This will be a major driving force behind the community’s continued development.

“[In ASEAN] there is huge economic growth, and it’s a time of very significant changes,” said Alan Bollard, Executive Director of APEC Secretariat, and a keynote speaker at the forum.

Bollard addressed several issues from the shift in economic growth, to labour costs and changing business models.

“In this region there will be a big increase in trade and services across borders, and we will see that service trade growth is outgrowing merchandise trade growth,” he said.

Tony Fernandes, Group CEO, Air Asia, believes that businesses in the region still have a lot of room for growth with hundreds of millions of consumers ready to embrace home-grown ASEAN brands.

“There are 600 million people in the ASEAN market but you can count in your hand how many ASEAN brands [there are],” says Fernandes. “There is potential that brands from Thailand or Indonesia can become household names.”

Some of the challenges for the AEC+3 discussed at the forum included increased competition in AEC countries, sourcing and retaining labour in the region and disruptive technology such as e-commerce and start-ups.

Moreover, to enhance cooperation in the region, 13 organisations from both private and public sector spanning 10 countries signed an AEC+3 multilateral business collaboration Memorandum of Understanding, the first of its kind in Thailand.

Some of the signatories included Isara Vongkusolkit, Chair of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Trade of Thailand, Xu Ningning, Executive President of China-ASEAN Business Council, and Takeshi Akagi, GM of International Department, Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The agreement covers cooperation on trade, investment and technology, as well as sharing information on economic statistics, while providing trade partner introductions and cross-border business matching activities.

Words by Pimsirinuch Borsub 

Issue 47

GIZTIX is a new logistics platform provider that increases competitive advantages for Thai SME entrepreneurs.

Thai startup GIZTIX was founded by Sittisak Wongsomnuk, Sarawut Kittirattanasopha and Nattawut Hanpongkul in 2015. All three are experts in IT logistics.

The initial idea came from Wongsomnuk’s intention to change his family logistics business into an e-Logistics system. After testing the system on his family business, he saw greater potential for the system.

“In Thailand, we don’t have any platform for industrial logistics, despite the fact that it is one of the major industry sectors in our country,” Wongsomnuk says.

GIZTIX is a marketplace for buying and selling transportation services, its online logistics enables shippers to check and compare prices, and make online payment in seconds. It helps to both speed up and simplify logistics. “Thailand's logistics system not only should be, but must be e-Logistics,” Wongsomnuk says.

The main reason behind building the e-logistics platform is to support and help Thai SME entrepreneurs to have an easy-to-use application. GIZTIX’s members are able to access a free e-commerce website, and also use an application for making quotations easily. Importantly, as a marketplace, the company will create more opportunities for members to meet customers around the world and make business deals with only a one-off commission charge, Wongsomnuk adds.

“We don’t want to make a large profit. We really want to support Thai SMEs and we are proud that our customers trust and use our services more and more,” he says.

GIZTIX is growing rapidly with Chinese, Hong Kong, Singaporean, Malaysian, English, American and Australian customers already using its services. In addition to the positive feedback from its clients, the company has already picked up several awards, such as Thailand ICT Awards 2015, DTAC Accelerate 2015, and Echelon Thailand 2015.

“Besides a very strong business model, our teams have specialised skills. It’s hard to find people who are experts in IT logistics,” says Wongsomnuk. “The next things we want to do is extend our team and developing our software. Within the year, GIZTIX will create a booking and payment system, including an instant price list for transportation in order that customers can search price lists more easily. Moreover, our system will be completely accessible via mobile devices.”

The young entrepreneur believes that the advent of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) last December will have an impact on the way business is done.

“Entering the AEC will result in more competition,” he says. “Whoever is still doing everything manually will lose their competitive advantage. They have to change themselves into e-Logistics entrepreneurs, otherwise they won’t keep up with others. Using an e-Logistics system creates a competitive advantage for a business. I’m sure our system can definitely make a competitive advantage for our customers and their businesses.”

For more information, please visit https://www.giztix.com

Words by: Patcharee Taedangpetch, Photo courtesy of GIZTIX