Operators complain of government inaction
Written by Admin on Saturday, August 30th, 2008
Operators complain of government inaction
Phusadee Arunmas
Government failure to implement policy and producers’ inattention to logistics costs are hindering Thailand’s development of logistics systems, according to industry executives.
Suchart Chantaranakaracha, chairman of the Thai National Shippers Council, said that the cost of logistics in Thailand was 19-20% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and that exporters are currently facing high raw-material, energy and logistics costs as well as a stronger baht, which had undermined their competitive edge.
However, he said, logistics system development needs an improvement in public utilities, information technology and the supply chain as well as in the knowledge and skills of producers and service providers.
Since the establishment of a one-stop service centre, he said the documentation service provided by state agencies to exporters had improved.
However, he characterised government commitment to putting logistics system development policy into practice as “lacklustre”.
He said policy had been prepared four years ago for investing in port, railway, and road construction. Yet the policy had rarely been put into practice since.
Thanet Sorat, vice president of V-Serve Logistics Co, said the government’s aim of making Thailand the logistics hub in Asia might be out of reach because the country lagged behind rivals including Malaysia and Singapore in port systems.
But he believes Thailand can still become the logistics hub in the Great Mekong sub-region of Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Thailand because it could link its transport system with the other nations. To this end, he said, the government needs to speed up developing its software systems and improving its rules and regulations.
In his view, though, a leading obstacle to Thailand developing its logistics systems is that producers are unaware of their logistics cost.
For instance, he said, some agro-industry producers with perishable products do not know how much their logistics cost. This attitude made it difficult to reduce logistics costs and enhance efficiency and competitiveness, he said.
Rachane Pojanasunthorn, director-general of the Export Promotion Department, said Thailand’s exports and imports had grown each year by an average of 22% and 15%, with a combined value of more than three trillion baht.
He also saw great potential for growth if the country could develop a logistics network with the Asean market, with a population of 550 million, and China, with a population of 1.3 billion.
He said the department would show the potential of Thailand’s logistics business operators at Thailand International Logistics Fair 2008 at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Center (Bitec) in Bang Na from Sept 11-13.
