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Published on November 3, 2007

Prayod Lerswatanasiwalee, president of the association, said the strategy aimed to avoid tougher price competition in the US market. The forecast economic slowdown and depreciation of the dollar are expected to cause low purchasing power, so that exporters to the US will have to implement a price strategy to maintain market share.

Thailand's major rivals in the US are China and Vietnam.

Shifting exports to the EU will reduce the price war and encourage Thai manufacturers to focus more on design and high quality, he said.

Prayot said the strengthening baht would be an important factor next year in creating business risk and exporters would also face skyrocketing prices for oil and raw materials.

Bourse pool

The Stock Exchange of Thailand says Asean stock markets are planning to pool their big-capital stocks on a single board as an easier monitoring channel.

Nongram Wongwanich, executive vice president of the SET, said Asean stock markets and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had met and would study the platform of cooperation among Asean markets to make the regional market more attractive.

The cooperation is needed as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines have market capitalisation together equal to South Korea's stock market.

"The ADB was the key operator at the meeting. We agreed to push the Asean market and make the world look at us as a single product," she said.

The Nation