The Commerce Ministry aims to raise the export volume to China to US$100 billion by 2027 from $28-39 billion a year now, with a focus on high-potential provinces and cities such as Guangdong, Shanghai and Shandong.
Pimchanok Vonkorpon, director-general of the Trade Policy and Strategy Office, said despite the deepening trade row between the US and China dampening Thai export volume for some items, Thailand's overall exports still have ample room to grow in China, boosted by higher demand for agricultural and food products.
The office studied Thai trade opportunities in 10 provinces and main cities, accounting for 84.2% of Chinese import volume: Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Shandong, Zhejiang, Beijing, Henan, Tianjin, Fujian and Sichuan.
The study found imports into the 10 areas represented up to 91.3% of imports from Thailand during 2015-17. Those 10 imported $35.8 billion worth of goods from Thailand.
The study also found Thailand's exports to those 10 provinces and cities remained below their full capacity.
Shanghai is Thailand's biggest marketplace in China, followed by Guangdong, Shandong and Jiangsu. Major products include rice, chilled and frozen chicken, tapioca, and rubber and rubber products.
According to the office, Thai imports into Shanghai during 2015-17 averaged $11.3 billion a year, followed by Guangdong ($10.7 billion), Shandong ($4.85 billion) and Jiangsu ($4.79 billion).
Ms Pimchanok said the 10 provinces and cities in China have similar characteristics and policies on economic development, such as decentralisation, expansion of transport links both domestically and abroad, promotion of transport hubs for online sales, rich natural resources, high income per capita and high population density.
The online platform will focus on cross-border e-commerce in Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Zhengzhou and Guangzhou.
Ms Pimchanok said the government will promote closer links between China's Belt and Road scheme and Thailand's Eastern Economic Corridor project and try to attract more investments from each Chinese province. Business matching with provinces in Thailand and Chinese provinces such as Sichuan and Henan will also be beefed up.
The Commerce Ministry has forecast Thai exports to China to grow by 10% this year from $29.5 billion in 2017. For the first 10 months of 2018, shipments to China totalled $24.9 billion, up 3.8% from the same period last year.
The ministry has set next year's export target for China and Hong Kong at 12% growth.
The Commerce Ministry is also maintaining its export growth forecast of 8% in 2019 to $276 billion, an average of $23 billion a month.
The growth will be driven by the Asean market (+8.3%), China and Hong Kong (+12%), South Asia (+8%), Russia and CIS (+10%), East Asia including Taiwan, Japan and South Korea (+7%), the EU (+3%), North America (6.1%), the Middle East (+3%), Latin America (+6%) and Australia (6%).
To overcome risk from the trade war and foreign exchange volatility, the Commerce Ministry through the International Trade Promotion Department plans to organise more than 500 activities locally and globally to promote Thai products in 2019.
