"Made in Thailand" expo aims to build partnerships

CEBU, Philippines -  The second “Made in Thailand” exhibit slated this August 28 to 30 at the SM Cebu Trade Hall aims to introduce ways for local and foreign exporters and businessmen to work hand-in-hand and build partnerships.

This according to Jose Ng, Thailand Honorary trade advisor in the Philippines, during a press conference yesterday adding that it has been a perception of some businessmen that neighboring Asian countries such as Thailand is a competitor of our local companies, and the exhibit is intended to change such belief.

“We are all talking about globalization but we can not do it if we do not have partners,” said Ng. He added that local businesses should not hold back in venturing in to partnerships like these because it would help their businesses grow and develop.

Ng said that they are working on their aim to make the event annual to make more partnerships between Cebuano and Thai businessmen.

Over 30 exhibitors from different manufacturing sectors in Thailand will be in Cebu next week to participate in the second “Made in Thailand Exhibition.”

Since it was first launched in Cebu years ago, it showed great success and invited prospect buyers and traders from the local market to make alliances with the Thai exporters, said            During a press conference yesterday, Ng shared that the first Made in Thailand exhibition was five to six years ago and they would have wanted to bring it back but encountered some constraints in the preparation, budget and also since the government of Thailand have been changing heads in the past years as well.

Ng said that the exhibition has a lot of support from the Thai government and the whole event, as well as the one to be opened in Manila today until the 23rd, is sponsored by their government, particularly the Department of Export Promotion, Ministry of Commerce in Thailand.

He said that the first exhibition ran for two weeks since the exhibitors also sold their products and reported very high sales that reached P60 thousand a day.

But Ng said that this time, the exhibitors would want to touch base on the local businessmen and exporters who would want to become their partners.

He said that they are inviting those who would even want to have a one-on-one business matching, they could make arrangements and those interested could contact the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Ng said that compared to before where there were only 16 exhibitors displaying mostly garment and beauty products, more could be seen this time like household and kitchen ware, gift and decorative items, food and beverages, garments, textiles and fashion accessories and even electrical appliances.