Tokyo and Bangkok, March 11, 2011 -- Rakuten Inc.(Rakuten), Rakuten Group's TARAD Cot Com Co., Ltd. (TARAD.com), Thailand’s Department of Export Promotion (DEP), and Japan External Trade Organization, Bangkok (JETRO), today launched a program to jointly promote the global export of products produced and developed by Thai SMEs. The program will utilize Rakuten and TARAD.com's E-Commerce platforms.
This program aims at empowering Thai SMEs to grow their product sales beyond the country and raise their gross transaction volume via e-commerce. This will be making it easier for Thai SMEs to sell their products through TARAD.com, the largest online marketplace in Thailand, as well as to expand their businesses to the Japanese market once TARAD.com connected to “Rakuten Ichiba,” Japan's largest Internet shopping mall.
DEP, JETRO and TARAD.com will jointly offered free seminars and workshops for Thai SMEs to prepare for e-commerce and overseas sales. Also, DEP and JETRO will support Thai SMEs when they open stores on TARAD.com to promote their expansion into the e-commerce businesses.
Mr. Toshiya Matsuo, CEO of TARAD.com, commented, “Thai SMEs are currently facing the risk of higher burden on their costs of expanding cross-border businesses. In the meantime, exports by Thai SMEs have been gradually increasing, particularly to Japan at a very large volume, and we see a great opportunity to accelerate this growth. Our program to bring Japanese products to Thailand was met with great success and with the support of JETRO and DEP, we believe this program could be a boon to Thai SMEs and help drive them to a worldclass level in the near future.”
DEP, JETRO and TARAD.com will offer a free seminar on 15 March 2011 at the Le Méridien Hotel in Chiang Mai from 09:00 – 18:00. The theme of the seminar is Trends and Benefits of Building your SME into a Worldclass Business.
Rakuten, TARAD.com, DEP and JETRO will continue to join hands in promoting the growth of Thai economy in the global market by further enhancing support measures for Thai SMEs.
About Rakuten
Rakuten, Inc. (JASDAQ: 4755), is one of the world’s leading Internet service companies, providing a variety of consumer and business-focused services including e-commerce, travel, banking, securities, credit card, e-money, portal & media, online marketing and professional sports. Rakuten is expanding globally and currently has operations throughout Asia, Western Europe and North America. Founded in 1997, Rakuten is headquartered in Tokyo and has over 10,000 employees worldwide. For more information, visit https://global.rakuten.com/group/.
About TARAD.com
TARAD.com, established in 1999, to provides services and development of One Stop E-Commerce Service in Thailand. By It is a provider of Web and E-Market Place And the knowledge of E-Commerce and E-Business in the form of books and training and has a joint venture with Rakuten in 2009. To develop and implement Thai E-Commerce and merchant to trading with the global market. The location of TARAD.com is TARAD building 552, Rachapisek 26, Rachadapisek rd. Samsennok Huaykwang Bangkok 10310 or visit http://premium.tarad.com/
About JETRO, Bangkok
JETRO is government-related organization works to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and other countries. JETRO Bangkok’s core activities include working with Thai companies to help them strengthen industrial competitiveness, as well as export markets, upgrade business- related systems and nurture human resources. Visit http://www.jetro.go.jp/thailand/