The Department of Export Promotion plans to revise its strategy for Egypt to reflect its role as a springboard to the larger African market.
"We should not look at Egypt as a single country but as a region," Srirat Rastapana, director-general the department, said yesterday.
Last week, Srirat led a trade mission to Libya and Egypt. Libya has been identified as a new export market while Egypt has been emphasised as promising high demand in line with its 80 million population.
Srirat pointed out that Egypt's economy is structured like Thailand's, as it produces a variety of goods and the agricultural sector is the country's foundation. As it ascends into high protection, Thailand should not compete directly with local products but should focus on cooperation to boost exports.
With the cooperation of Egypt, Thailand can distribute its goods to other African countries as well as the European Union and Middle East.
Trade with Egypt grew very slowly after the global economic crisis of 1997. Last year two-way trade dropped 10.11 per cent to US$550 million (Bt18.5 billion) from $642.55 million in 2008.
Of the total, Thailand's exports accounted for $587.17 million while imports were worth $55.38 million.
Thai companies should consider investing in Egypt to benefit not only from domestic distribution but also from exporting to other countries.
Investors from China, Malaysia and Indonesia are very active in doing business with Egyptian businessmen.
However, Thailand should explore more opportunities by seeking local partners to form business alliances there.
"In fact, Egyptian businessmen have not come to Thailand so we should seek local partners to match our businesses," Srirat said.
Mamdouh Moustafa, first under-secretary of the Egyptian Commercial Service of the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Egypt, said Asian countries including China, Japan, Singapore and Thailand rank second or third in the country's total trade.
Egypt is well situated to distribute products to Asia, the US and EU. It also has linkage with Latin American countries via Mercosur, which is the customs union of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.
"We would hope to see a trade relations mission to create a free trade agreement in Africa and Asia," he said.
Ali Al Korei, chairman of the Egyptian-Thai Business Council, said Asia is an economic powerhouse, which should create complementing businesses. However, Egypt is a price sensitive market and entering the market is not easy.
Egypt is a country rich in resources, particularly gas, textiles and silica sand. Potential imports include auto parts and components, food especially canned tuna, construction materials and engineering services.
"Egyptian consumers love Thai tuna, which now shares 10 per cent of the market. However, the product has now come into global competition," Korei said.
