Thailand Is Opening Its Own Institute Supported by Both The Public and Private Sectors

Thailand is opening its own institute supported by both the public and private sectors to develop the local plastics industry into a major force in Asean. The institute starts operating today with full-time staff, headed by Kriengsak Wongpromra from the Petroleum Institute of Thailand. The institute will receive financial support of Bt720 million over five years, with 80 percent coming from the government and 20 percent from the private sector.It will be in charge of developing many aspects of the local plastics industry, including skilled labour, design, database management and product testing. Veerasak Kositpaisal, chairman of the Plastic Industry Club under the Federation of Thai Industries, said yesterday that the Asean Federation of Plastic Industries recently hosted a meeting in Bangkok on closer coordination of plastic producers in the region. The objective was to prepare to take advantage of the Asean Economic Community in 2015. More than 50 delegates from plastic-product manufacturers in Asean joined the discussion.They agreed to explore many areas of synergy, including PRO-duct development, manufactur-ing, trading and services.The plastics industry accounts for 3 per cent of Thai-land's gross domestic product, excluding value-added products such as automobiles. "Thailand is now the largest plastics industry in Asean.We want to work with friends in Asean to be strong together and ready to serve the world, " said Veerasak, who is president and chief executive officer of PTT Chemical. "On behalf of the Plastic Industry Club, we want to encourage closer cooperation among products of plastic products in Asean. "We would like to apply the same model as the automobile industry in promoting competency of those plastic producers in the region by making plastic products that they do best in terms of productivity at less cost, " he said. Such a strategy will help boost economies of scale in particular manufacturing countries. Plastic manufacturers here also need to improve their competitiveness in terms of costs as well as energy intensity, in preparing themselves to cope with the AEC. "The full implementation of the AEC will benefit the overall plastic industry in Asean as all trade barriers will be lifted and all necessary resources, such as labour, capital and assets, will be able to move across borders within Asean, " Veerasak said. Industry Minister Wannarat Charnnukul, in a speech during the opening ceremony of Pack Print International and the Thai Interna-tional Plastics and Rubber Exhibi-tion at Bitec, said the Asean region is clearly a top choice for leaders from the packaging, printing, plastics and rubber industries. Wannarat was upbeat about Thailand's packaging, printing and manufacturing prospects.He highlighted buoyant growth particularly in the automobile, food-packaging and printing industries. "The synergistic approach in having these two exhibitions side by side complements each industry and further strengthens Thailand's position as a core manufacturing centre for Asean, " he said. Touching on the topic of bioplastics, which will remain as one of the niche, strategic industries in Thailand, Wannarat said the government has mobilised resources to develop the technology to extract, process and convert farm-based materials into bioplastics. "This new industry needs more promotion and supportive linkages throughout its value chain, " he said.Thai plastics industry aims to be ASEAN leader. Source:Plasticsinfomart.Com