Thailand highly rated globally

Published: 24/04/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: Business

Thailand has been ranked 30th out of 67 countries as a location for international retailers, with high scores for new luxury brands and for new clothing and footwear stores, in a survey by the international property consultant CB Richard Ellis.

The company's annual "How Global is the Business of Retail?" survey found that 27% of 280 retailers had a presence in Thailand in 2008.

This put Thailand behind regional competitors like China (42%), Japan (37%), Singapore (36%), Hong Kong (34%) and Malaysia (33%) but ahead of Australia (26%), Indonesia (25%), the Philippines (19%) and Vietnam (9%).

Thailand's presence of international brands was also 27% in the 2007 survey, when it was ranked 27th as a location.

The UK again took top position - ahead of other major European countries like Spain, France, Germany and Italy - hosting 58% of the world's top retailers.

While Europe continued to dominate the survey's top rankings last year, emerging economies like China, Russia and the United Arab Emirates gained ground.

The United States came only 10th globally, with 39% of international retailers present, despite being one of the world's largest and most established retail markets. This is partly due to US retailers tending to penetrate their vast national market extensively before considering international expansion.

Nithipat Tongpun, executive director of CB Richard Ellis Thailand, said many retailers had continued their expansion plans last year despite the global economic slowdown.