Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce has approved budget of 67.5 million THB(over 2.1 million USD) to help more than 500 small and medium-sizedenterprises (SMEs) cope with export difficulties this year.

Exported products supported by the project include jewellery, food,toys, farming equipment, gifts and souvenirs, handicrafts, householdutensil, herbal medicine, cosmetics, garments, air conditioners andmedical equipment.

The ministry’s International TradePromotion Department will also help the enterprises penetrate marketsin the US, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, East Asia and SoutheastAsia.

Last month, the Thai Government implemented a projectto support the country’s SMEs in their path of joining the ASEANEconomic Community.

The enterprises were also assisted toimprove their competitiveness in world markets through their connectionsand relations with foreign partners.

In the first sixmonths of this year, Thai SMEs’ export value reached almost 906 billionTHB (about 30 billion USD), mainly China, Japan, US, Indonesia and HongKong (China).

Their key exports were jewellery , plastic products, rubber, and industrial machines.

In another move, Thailand and Laos recently agreed to raise two-waytrade from 145 billion THB (4.84 billion USD) to 250 billion THB (8.3billion USD) by 2015.

Accordingly, Thailand will encourageits investors to set up business facilities in Laos in order to developthe country into a goods producer for exports to third countries.-VNA