The National Village and Urban Community Committee chaired by Supattanapong Punmeechaow approved in principle 15 billion baht in spending for a scheme to upgrade community businesses and community tourism.
The budget will come from the government's 400-billion-baht spending plan slated for social and economic rehabilitation, said Rakpong Sengcharoen, head of the National Village and Urban Community Office.
"At the meeting, the National Economic and Social Development Council [NESDC] advised the government to accelerate the approval process for the spending scheme aimed to upgrade community businesses and enterprises, as proposed by the National Village and Urban Community Office," said Mr Rakpong. "Such projects can help boost the local economy and ease the impact of the pandemic."
Under the committee's proposal, the office would allocate 200,000 baht each to the 79,604 Village Funds.
"The budget is in line with the government's three-pronged community development plan comprising product development, new job creation and tourism-based communities," he said.
Mr Rakpong said the agency is committed to advising each Village Fund to focus mainly on community business development, local product upgrades and tourism community development, which can generate income for local communities.
All 79,604 villages have registered as a corporate entity that allows them to implement community businesses.
Earlier in July, Mr Rakpong said his office looked set to upgrade all Village Funds, including those categorised as Grade C, under its economic rehabilitation plan.
His office aims to upgrade 7,000 Grade C Village Funds to Grade A or B, which are considered premium grades for management competency, attractive returns on investment, decent accounting standards and complete information presented in the annual report, as well as perfect care for members.
Grade A and B Village Funds also have the potential to upgrade their own community businesses and community banks, while Grade C Village Funds over the past several years lacked any government support, including new funding, because of their poor management and relatively high bad debt.
Mr Rakpong said the office plans to hire university students or unemployed workers to conduct surveys and data analysis for village development at 79,604 Village Funds nationwide.
This would be the first time Thailand collects in-depth information on each village other than population figures, he said.