THE FUTURE DIRECTION OF APPAREL AND TEXTILE INDUSTRY : A COMPETITIVENESS ANALYSIS OF THAILAND’S APPAREL AND TEXTILE INDUSTRY USING KOREAN’S APPAREL AND TEXTILE INDUSTRY AS BENCHMARK

Abstract

Apparel and textile industry of Thailand is one of industries in which contributing economic growth towards Thai economy over decades; however, this industry tends to loss its competitiveness in global stage due to a relatively high labor cost. In order to find the remedy, this paper is trying to find competitiveness of Thai apparel and textile industry though various dimensions. South Korea is chosen to be benchmark as these two countries have been sharing same development model following by Japan. This study adopts generalized double diamond model in order to find competitive advantages of the industry domestically and internationally. Secondary data is gathered and analyzed via generalized double diamond model. In-depth interviews are also held to find an insight data. The outcome turns out that Thai apparel industry has strength in its domestic conditions and domestic competitive structure. However, R&D expenditure is still relatively low which leads to a lag of new products that can be a competitive advantage of the nation. Nonetheless, internationalization is also a big problem in which Thai private apparel brands are not that well recognized in the global stage. Although FDI flows can be a good factor to make the whole industry becomes better.