Thailand to soon revive Bangkok Fashion City project

31 Aug '12

2 min read

The Bangkok Fashion City project may soon see the daylight as the Thailand Government plans to restart the project, initiated by Thaksin administration, next year, Industry Minister MR Pongsvas Svasti, has said.

Started in 2003, the 1.8-billion-baht program's objective was to establish Bangkok as a regional fashion hub and eventually as the world fashion leader. However, the project was stalled at the end of 2006 because of political reasons and since then the country’s fashion industry is going downhill resulting in very limited number of designers remaining and very few brand start-ups.

Moreover, the textile industry in Thailand has been badly impacted by the Government’s 300-baht-daily-wage policy. The sudden rise in wages has further increased the already high cost of production of in the country.

Industry experts believe that the situation is going to get worsened by the formation of the Asean Economic Community in 2015, an ambitious project which will combine ten Southeast Asian nations to create an EU-style single market.

To revive the project, initially, the Government plans to assign 100 million baht for appointing internationally-acclaimed designers from Europe to assist the country in developing its own designers and brands, as well as to hold fashion events in places like Siam Pragon and Ratchaprasong, Mr. Pongsvas said.

The proposed project will establish around 10,000 factories and is expected to generate employment for 1.5 million workers.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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