Tetsushi Ishizuka, Itochu Thailand’s president and general manager for Indochina

Tetsushi Ishizuka is smiling. As Itochu Corp.’s general manager for the Indochina region and Itochu Thailand’s president, he is quite content with the direction the Japanese sogo shosa (general trading firm) has taken in Thailand.

Upon taking over in 2003, Ishizuka’s mission was to build on Itochu’s traditional business practice

of exporting goods from Thailand to Japan. He found that although Itochu had an extensive history in Thailand, it had never aggressively pursued business aimed toward the local Thai market.

Within Thailand’s food sector, Itochu was always involved in the upper stream of growing and exporting produce. With this in mind, Ishizuka expanded Itochu’s activities to include downstream operations on the retail level.

‘‘Now we have flour, sugar, and starch mills and intermediate businesses to process these goods and retail operations — from convenience stores to restaurants — to sell these goods. Other trading firms are not involved in the food industry all the way down to the retail level,’’ he says.

Ishizuka recognized Thailand’s manufacturing sector needed to be balanced by an improvement in its land, air and sea logistics services. Itochu filled the need by expanding its provision of parts and logistics to the automotive sector, collaborating on the logistics side with Thai Airways on air cargo at the soon-to-open Suvarnabhumi airport, and shortening transport times between central and southern Thailand through the use of sea carriers.

Itochu’s new business practices were not domestically confined, either. Being chairman of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce’s Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Committee, Ishizuka recognized Thailand’s strategic location and has since expanded Itochu (Thailand)’s activities outward.

‘‘Thailand is the engine for the GMS — Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and China’s Yunnan province — also known as the baht economic zone. Being based in Thailand, Itochu has the golden opportunity to work within these countries,’’ he says. Due to recent improvements, Itochu Thailand looks to a bright future, indeed a good reason to smile.