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Published on October 25, 2007

Newly opened retail and wholesale market the Sunday Mall is trying to sell its commercial space, with tenants being offered a "switching trade" scheme in collaboration with the Kunming-Thai Culture and Trade Centre.

Sunday Mall, operated and owned by Thanasarnsombat Pattana, is adjacent to Bangkok's retail and wholesale Chatuchak Market.

Under the switching-trade scheme, the firm will help Thai tenants of the Sunday Mall with access to the Chinese market and at the same time bring products from China into Thailand, said Thanasarnsombat Pattana president Rattana Torsutkanok.

"Both malls will also build awareness of imported products from the other in their respective countries," she said.

Rattana said the firm would devote the second floor of the mall, which occupies 6,000 square metres, to tenants importing Chinese products for both wholesale and retail. The area is able to accommodate up to 300 shops.

The five-storey Chinese wholesale and retail centre is jointly owned by Thai and Chinese business people. The entire commercial area is designed to accommodate 121 shops selling Thai products, while the centre is under construction and scheduled to open next June.

The Sunday Mall is a five-storey building, with the first three floors a commercial area and the fourth and the fifth floors for parking. The first floor will be devoted to unique Thai products and the third floor to restaurants and banks. The value of the project is Bt1.5 billion, and it is scheduled to open in December 2008.

Both the Chinese wholesale and retail centre and the Sunday Mall will have processes for screening qualified products to sell, while the Sunday Mall will also carefully screen to prevent the entry of Chinese products that may be subject to recall.

The Kunming centre is estimated to generate no less than Bt10 billion in revenue annually, while the Sunday Mall is expected to generate a big proportion of the total estimated revenue of the entire mall, said Rattana.

Phusit Phensiri, executive vice president of market-research company Nanosearch and a consultant to the Sunday Mall, said having such centres in both countries was important for increasing accessibility and opportunities for exporting and importing interesting products.

And also as the director of the Invest and Trading Development Centre, he has joined with academics to conduct a feasibility study into establishing a logistics company that offers logistics management to Thai businesses that export their products and want to bring Chinese products into the Thai market. By applying the switching-trade strategy, he said Thai exporters and Chinese importers would not have to return to their home towns with empty vehicles. Phusit said the private sector could not just wait for the government to initiate the idea, because the current government's term is about to end, and the Kingdom would have to wait until the next government.

Nitida Asawanipont

 The Nation