InfoQuest (May 20, 2020) -- After the senior executives of the Export-Import Bank of Thailand (EXIM Bank) had completed their work briefing, deputy finance minister Santi Promphat said that the executives had been ordered to develop strategies and prepare export promotion and support plans that cover all types of businesses, especially small enterprises, start-ups and medium-sized enterprises; specifically, the strategies and plans will include credit granting, seeking trade channels and developing new markets, so as to enable export enterprises to conduct business efficiently and improve their competitiveness.
The Ministry of Finance had urged the EXIM Bank to create databases targeting for each country and aggregate data to assess the impact of COVID-19, with the aim of providing auxiliary information support for enterprises to analyze the commodity marketing channels and helping enterprises perform more flexibly in the export of commodities. In addition, EXIM Bank, which bears the mission of expanding Thailand's export market to drive the Thai economy, is considering providing support and guidance in loans, related financial transactions, export guarantees and Letters of Credit (LC) to help the country to recover from the export slowdown amid the outbreak.
Mr. Santi Promphat pointed out that the EXIM Bank should not only provide loans or export guarantees, but also expand markets and look for new markets or information sources, so as to increase the sales channels for exporters.
"I hope EXIM Bank can explore its own mission, and do more beyond issuing low-interest loans, if not, it's just a normal financial institution, not EXIM Bank. It must provide support and help with guaranteeing and investigating the reliability of our trading partners, and find out what kind of goods the relevant countries lack or need cooperating with our commercial counselors; some commodities can be produced by our own enterprises, but they themselves have no idea about that, so we need to tell them which country is short of what commodities, so as to help our enterprises to find channels to export the corresponding commodities. I think these are important tasks for EXIM Bank," Mr. Santi Promphat said.
After the restrictions on traveling were lifted, the demand for markets is expected to be greatly released, which will lead to fierce competition. In view of that, what measures should be taken by the EXIM Bank in the next step? Specifically speaking, in terms of capital, interest-free loans may be issued; in terms of market, the EXIM Bank will communicate with commercial counselors of other countries to see which products and industries can still provide opportunities, and will perhaps organize entrepreneurs association seminars to invite commercial counselors to provide information; for enterprises in shortage of capital, corresponding capital will be provided. The above-mentioned measures will make the EXIM Bank the key to restarting the suspended export, as well as one of the key players in Thailand's economic system.
Source: InfoQuest, by Khara/ Rachada / Kasamarporn, translated by Xinhua Silk Road.
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