Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should venture into overseas markets to seek growth, says Export-Import Bank of Thailand (Exim Bank) president Rak Vorrakitpokatorn.
He said previously exporters developed business plans for 5-10 years.
Exim Bank has an online seminar scheduled for Friday that recommends short-term plans of not more than six months because business conditions change too much to plan beyond that, said Mr Rak.
SMEs should value growth and to generate it, these firms need to penetrate overseas markets because the domestic market is weaker, he said.
The Thai market is suffering from ballooning household debt and ageing demographics that dent domestic purchasing power, said Mr Rak.
SMEs that start exporting goods should acquire the tools to hedge risk, such as export credit insurance, he said.
Exim Bank has provided protection for exports worth 1.55 trillion baht over the past 28 years, with insurance claims of 1.4 billon baht.
Of the 1.4 billion baht in claims, 70% was due to importers' defaults in making payment without an excuse, while another 20% was from importers' bankruptcy, said Mr Rak.
The final 10% was attributed to importers' claims that product quality did not meet agreed-upon standards.
He said SMEs keen to ship to frontier markets such as Africa, South America or South Asia should seek export insurance as buyers there have more bargaining power than sellers.
This means some buyers might decline to issue a letter of credit for sellers, instead paying a deposit of only 15-20% of total product value.
Mr Rak said the most frequent trade risk during the pandemic is foreign buyers' non-payment or incomplete payment.
It is difficult and costly for Thai exporters to recover debts, he said.