Strong baht could hurt export targets

       Thailand's exports are unlikely to achieve 10% growth next year if the government leaves the baht's appreciation unchecked,exporters warn.
       "Ongoing baht strength will harm Thai shipments and weaken our competitiveness," said Pornsil Patchrintanakul,deputy secretary-general of the Board of Trade.
       Mr Pornsil was one of a group of leading executives from more than 50 trade associations who yesterday met with Veerasak Jinarat, the vice-minister for Commerce.
       The baht, quoted yesterday at 33.35 to the US dollar, is currently trading at a 14-month high and is up 4.4% since January.
       Exporters said the baht has appreciated significantly faster against the dollar than competing currencies such as the Chinese yuan or the Vietnamese dong,hurting Thailand's trade competitiveness.
       Exporters yesterday called on the central bank to help maintain the baht at about 36 baht per dollar to keep Thai exports competitive particularly for agriculture and food.
       But Bank of Thailand Governor Tarisa Watanagase said the baht was moving in line with other Asian currencies. There was no need for a repeat of the 2006 capital controls to try to prevent a rise in the currency's strength.
       "We are still taking care of the baht,"she said."But there is no need to have any capital controls as we have not seen speculation in the currency yet."
       The central bank does plan to diversify its foreign reserves with other currencies in coming weeks, she said.
       "We will do what we can," she said.The BoT has intervened steadily to slow the baht's rise to help Thailand's export-driven economy, but the currency's value against the dollar has still increased by about 2% since September.
       The government is facing calls to help control costs by cutting import tariffs on raw materials and introducing a carbon tax.
       Exporters urged the the government to accelerate establishing its own carbon and wastewater standards.
       "The national carrier Thai Airways International, for instance, is subject to pay 800 million baht carbon tax to the EU in 2012 as it flies over EU's territorial sky and emits carbon dioxide to the global atmosphere," said Mr Pornsil."The Thai government should also issue the same standards and requirements requiring other airlines to pay carbon tax to Thailand."
       Vollop Vitanakorn, vice chairman of Thai National Shippers' Council also warned Thailand was expected to suffer from an unskilled labour shortfall of about one million people over the next five years, as unskilled workers return to the agricultural sector as agricultural product prices rise.
       In addition, the government's free education programme is expected to yield a skills improvement that will add to segment's labour shortage, he said.