How does the government help support the furniture industry in Thailand?
Sanpakit: In Thailand, the private sector has to work extremely hard to support ourselves in order to stay competitive. The government, largely through the Department of Export Promotion, offers support only in terms of marketing. In other areas like the distribution and production, we have to struggle to do it all ourselves. Although our country is quite fortunate to have a huge supply of raw materials used in the production of furniture, a lot of them are exported without being processed into value-added products. Even our competitors buy raw materials from Thailand. A lack of government support has also made it difficult for Thai manufacturers to promote products with the locally created designs. At the present, only 20% of furniture exports from Thailand are created by Thai designers, with the remainder being produced under the clients’ orders and designs. thailand.com: What is being done to further improve the competitiveness of Thailand’s furniture industry? Sanpakit: The Thai fu
