Bangkok--5 Oct--German International Cooperation
Ministry of Industry and the European Union officially launch the Greening Supply Chains in the Thai Auto and Automotive Parts Industries Project to improve the production processes in the Thai Auto and Automotive parts industries of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the environmentally friendly resources management and efficient use of energy. The project targets the training and practice in the 500 Thai auto industries by the end of project in January 2015.
The project receives funding of almost 1.6 million EUR (THB 60 million) from the SWITCH-Asia Programme of the European Union and it is jointly co-funded and implemented among five partners including German International Cooperation (GIZ), Thailand Automotive Institute (TAI), Thai SME Bank, the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) and the UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Center on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP).
Mr. Witoon Simachokdee, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Industry said “the Greening Supply Chains in the Thai Auto and Automotive Parts Industries Project is in line with the commitment of Ministry of Industry towards becoming a green manufacturing base in Asia by 2014, which is crucial to promote cleaner production and management to reduce environmental impacts in the industrial sector. Under this project, we will work closely with the project to promote the Green Industry Mark (GIM) among Thai Auto and Automotive parts industries by supporting the country's spare parts manufacturers in enlarging their eco-friendly production technologies through local and international standards. It is expected that productivity and quality of products of at least 250 SMEs of the 500 participating SMEs will be increased, while environmental impacts and energy use per production unit will be reduced.”
Mr. Attila Nyitrai, Deputy Head of EU Delegation to Thailand said “the European Union is cooperating with 19 other countries in Asia to promote sustainable consumption and production. This project, which will run for 36 months, will promote the application of environmental and energy tools to improve production efficiency by providing trainings and consultancy services on cleaner and sustainable production measures to about 500 Thai auto and automotive parts producers. In addition, this project will assist them in accessing capital for improving production processes that help reduce environmental impacts. The project also aims at drawing lessons learned for formulating policy recommendations for government. At the end of the project, it is expected that the productivity and environmental performance of the participating Thai auto and automotive parts SMEs will be improved by 10%.”