Damri Sukhotanang, a deputy permanent security at the ministry, said last week that China had plenty of skilled labourers and could produce moulds and dies in large numbers at a good price.

If China could produce enough of these products for its domestic automotive and electronics industries, it could then dump the surplus into the Thai market, he said.

Thailand is importing many times more moulds and dies than it exports. This trade deficit is especially acute in automobiles, auto parts and electronics.

In 2005, the country imported moulds and dies worth Bt26.58 billion against exports of only Bt4.88 billion.

Damri said the main reason Thailand was falling behind was that it lacked skilled technicians, engineers and managers. This meant the Kingdom was not using computer-assisted design and manufacturing tools as it should.

In addition, he said the country had no system in place to coordinate the work of upstream and downstream manufacturers and users of moulds and dies.

The government is providing Bt1.6 billion to a Mould and Die Industry Development programme.

The project began in 2004 and aims to improve education and human resources, promote integration across the industry and develop useful data and other information.

About 2,000 staff have been trained to become trainers out of a target of 7,700.

Damri said there were now five "excellence centres" supporting research and development and technology transfer. The centres get support from both the government and the industry.

Damri said close to 90 per cent of the work involved in integrating the mould and die industry was already done.

As for the intelligence unit, he said an industry-wide website had already been developed and launched.

Watcharapong Thongrung

 The Nation