Training on maximising AEC benefits

Now in its initial stage, the programme is focused on Samut Prakan's Bang Pu Industrial Estate, which houses more than 3,000 businesses.

The programme is aimed at strengthening their competitiveness and fostering sustainable growth for them.

Department director-general Nuntawan Sakuntanaga said the department would eventually expand the programme to other industrial zones, so that businesses there could also reap the benefits of Asean integration with a high degree of efficiency.

The AEC is scheduled to come into effect in 2015. Integration will include liberalisation of investment and trade in goods and services.

The programme teaches enterprises how to take maximum advantage of zero tariffs, intra-Asean trade and investment, technology and raw-material transfers, cross-border labour and cooperation between government agencies and organisations.

The department said the Bang Pu Industrial Estate accounted for more than 20 per cent of the Kingdom's exports. Thailand has 38 industrial estates in 15 provinces employing more than 450,000 labourers.