Online trading set to get a boost via |Thaitrade.com
THE INTERNATIONAL Trade Promotion Department will promote its website, Thaitrade.com, by linking it to leading websites of the country's trading partners with a view to it being used as a hub for online trading in the region.
Under the collaboration plan, the department will initially forge closer ties with China’s Alibaba, South Korea’s TradeKorea.com, India’s TradeIndia.com and Vietnam’s VietTrade.com to link each country’s online traders and shoppers.
Nuntawan Sakuntanaga, director-general of the department, said the online-trading promotion formed part of the agency’s new strategies to drive export growth, as well as part of its support for those small and medium-sized enterprises with sights on becoming international traders.
The plan will also serve the government’s “digital economy” policy as the new trading era, online trading – e-commerce – will play a more significant role in driving global trade growth, she said.
Under the plan to support online traders, the department will link its website with international webpages, focusing on Asean countries as well as Asean+6 trading partners – China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand – since the Kingdom will soon wrap up free-trade agreements with these nations.
Lalida Jivanuntapravat, director of the department’s Digital and Information Technology Bureau, said that with emerging global growth of online trading, the department would promote Thaitrade.com to become a centre for trading in Asean, so that more Thai enterprises have a chance of reaching customers within the region.
With 13,756 traders, some 200,000 products and 78,789 registered buyers, Thaitrade.com has the potential to develop into an attractive centre for online shoppers to visit, she said.
“The Asean Economic Community [to be implemented by the end of this year] will pave the way for full trade liberalisation. Online trading will play a more significant role in trading. Thailand will therefore encourage businesses to facilitate online shoppers in the era of borderless trading,” she said.
To promote the website, the department will participate in international trade fairs held within Asean, and will also collaborate with website owners and traders in other Asean countries to link their sites with Thaitrade.com, she said.
Lalida added that the website should facilitate more export growth, as well as enhance the efficiency of Thai SMEs seeking to commence trading overseas.
As part of its plan to help SMEs, the department provides training under a young-online-traders project in how to develop into online operators. This includes training in taking pictures of products for uploading on to the website, and providing assistance for translation into other languages.
From October 1, 2014, to June 30 this year, the website served more than 477,000 visitors.
