Many unfavorable factors affect the development of Thailand's textile and other industries

At present, the baht still continues to appreciate, directly affecting more than 20,000 small and medium-sized export companies. In view of the intervention of the National Bank of Thailand, the SME Promotion Office believes that the exchange rate can be maintained at 29 to 30 baht per dollar this year.

However, the increasing cost of production is increasingly worrying. The highest prices for products include agricultural products, rubber products and petroleum products.

Prices of production materials have also increased, such as food and beverages, textiles, pulp and printed matter, chemicals and plastic products, and metal products. In addition to raw material costs, energy prices have also risen due to ** incidents in the Middle East and North Africa.

According to an analysis by the SME Promotion Office, the average wage cost of labor for SMEs is 16.2% of the total production cost. A 1% increase in labor wages will increase labor costs by 0.16%. Therefore, the new labor policy will increase the labor expenditure of SMEs by 35.7% to 80.7%, resulting in a 5.8% increase in total labor costs to 13.0%. This will greatly affect companies with labor costs greater than 35%, including the OEM industry, such as wooden furniture, textiles, leather products and construction.

Thanks to the government's investment promotion measures, coupled with more demand from the global market, and changes in the climate and the natural environment, small and medium-sized enterprises such as food, agricultural products, health products, rubber, auto parts and alternative energy have good prospects for development.

Companies with higher risks are mainly involved in real estate, contract construction, textiles, and tourism. Because the world economy began to slow down, consumer purchasing power decreased, and some markets began to saturate.