The government plans to foster the launch of 10,000 new small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by 2018 to help develop the national economy.
The target was set in an agreement signed by the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP), nine campuses of Rajamangala University of Technology, the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank (SME Bank) and the Federation of Thai SMEs at Government House on Wednesday.
Presiding over the signing ceremony, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said the collaboration of the government, the private sector, educational institutes and the bank was historic. SMEs were the foundation of global economies and well suited to the domestic economic situation.
All world forums were talking about SME development and his government had put them on its national agenda, the prime minister said.
SMEs should receive knowledge from educational institutes and have access to finance, he said. He hoped 3 million existing SMEs would be registered in the next year.
Somchai Harnhirun, director-general of the Industrial Promotion Department, said his staff were giving about 20 financial institutions information on the SMEs that participated in the department's development projects, to ensure they had access to funding.
Debt and lack of funding were major problems for SMEs. About 37% of them never received a loan from a financial institution, he said. That was because they lacked collateral, a good business plan or a good credit rating, or were new players, he said.