Thailand plans to increase exports through soft power in China and Hong Kong

[snoop1130]

 

Thailand's Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP) is working to increase exports by targeting markets in China and Hong Kong. They plan to promote a variety of Thai products - including food, fashion, and films. Phusit Ratanakul Seriroengrit, the Director-General of DITP, announced this initiative on Monday.

 

DITP is planning Thai food festivals in China and Hong Kong. This includes foods that have been awarded the Thai SELECT certification - a mark of their quality. These festivals will be held at major events like Qingdao’s Beer Festival and Shanghai’s Summer Festival, and will also be promoted via digital platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Weibo, and Dianping. Similar festivals are also planned in smaller cities, including Dongguan, Wuhan, Liuzhou, Xiamen, Xi’an, and Ningxia.

 

Promotion of Thai fruits has been underway since May in cities like Kunming, Chongqing, Jiangxi, and Guangzhou, and has already brought in 40 million baht in trade. The focus is on the taste, quality, and safety of Thai fruits. Partnerships with Hema Supermarket to promote fruits like durian, mangosteen, coconut, pomelo, and longan are also in the works, and these will be featured in dishes at 11 Thai restaurants in Shanghai.

 

 

Thai fashion will also be promoted at events in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and Thai film industry is set to benefit too. The popular Thai film How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies has been well received in Hong Kong, and DITP's Shanghai office wants to promote it ahead of its China release in September.

 

Trade fairs also form part of DITP's promotion strategy. Thai Brands Kunming 2024, China-ASEAN Expo 2024, and China International Import Expo are all on the agenda. Thai products will also be showcased in shopping malls and convenience stores in China and Hong Kong, for a thorough push into these profitable markets.

 

File photo for reference only

 

-- 2024-07-17

 

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[John Drake]

Thai films don't travel very well. Every now and then, a good one pops up, such as Once Upon a Star. But they are few and far between. That's what happens when you have an industry that doesn't pay well, and its best directors need to work in commercials to make ends meet.

[retarius]

I want to get me some of this soft power. Where is it sold?

It seems soft power can do anything, even snatch foreigners from their homes to bring them to a major global tourist destination and fleece them with cunning tuk-tuk, no money down, sightseeing tours.  

[spidermike007]

Thailand seems to be the hub of soft power. Very, very soft. 

[Pouatchee]

Soft power... new pu_e thai buzz word. Do they even know what it is?

 

Popular culture and mass media are regularly identified as a source of soft power, as is the spread of a national language or a particular set of normative structures.

 

Soft power has been criticized as being ineffective by authors such as Niall Ferguson in the preface to Colossus. Neorealist and other rationalist and neorationalist authors (with the exception of Stephen Walt) dismiss soft power out of hand as they assert that actors in international relations respond to only two types of incentives: economic incentives and force.  As a concept, it can be difficult to distinguish soft power from hard power. For example, Janice Bially Mattern argues that George W. Bush's use of the phrase "you are either with us or with the terrorists" was in fact an exercise of hard power. Though military and economic force was not used to pressure other states to join its coalition, a kind of force – representational force – was used. This kind of force threatens the identity of its partners, forcing them to comply or risk being labeled as evil. This being the case, soft power is therefore not so soft.[15]

 

 

They just want to look like they are doing something. Flapping their arms around like birds would work just as well. I despise anything pu_e thai or shi_awat