The government should develop lower-cost road, rail and sea transportation to enhance the country's logistics system in response to the Asean-China free-trade agreement, which will take effect in 2010.

A comprehensive two-year survey supported by the Thailand Research Fund looked into the logistics of products exported to China in the context of the upcoming trade deal in a bid to help merchandisers compete with rivals.

The survey focused on fruit, rubber, electronics and agricultural products, which are considered the four main export items to China.

For fruit exports, Dr Kaewta Rohitratana, associate professor of operations management at Thammasat University's Business School, said that the deep-sea Xiamen Port in the south of China would be a good target for Thai fruit growers to access inland China.

Apart from shorter delivery times, exporters would not have to rely so heavily on

Hong Kong, which is currently considered the distribution hub between Thailand and China.

In addition, she said this route would avoid the Jiangnan Market, which is the biggest fruit and vegetable wholesale market in southern China.

Meanwhile, Charoenchai Khompatrapron of King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, who headed the logistics research for rubber products, suggested that the government accelerate rail and sea transport development as both were cheaper than road transport. He said shipping was the cheapest transport method, followed by railways.

Charoenchai said the Transport Ministry should also increase the number of available locomotives to both pull more goods trains and to enhance logistics-related businesses such as container repair firms.

Sasithorn Ongdee

The Nation