Ministry, FTI aim to boost consumption, investment

The Thailand Industrial Fair, to be held within the next two months, will gather together local manufacturers to sell their products directly to consumers, in order to stimulate spending.

The old Board of Investment Fair, first organised 10 years ago, will also be revived. Foreign organisations will be invited to demonstrate their knowhow and advanced technology at the fair, which will take six to eight months to prepare.

"We are determined to restore confidence among foreign investors and investment institutes around the world and make Thailand an investment destination once again," said Industry Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan.

The third project involves opening 1,6002,000 distribution channels nationwide for manufacturers.

"We want to persuade grocery stores to participate in this project. It will help reduce their transportation costs, because the channels will be gathered in clusters and employ transportation companies to deliver their products together," he explained.

Meanwhile, the FTI also suggested the Industry Ministry address the issue of rising energy prices, which is resulting in a rapid increase in manufacturing costs.