Bangkok--8 May--F.T.I.
Today (May 8, 2007) Mr. Piyabutr Cholvijarn, Deputy Industry Minister, Mrs.Jitraporn Techacharn, Director General of the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP), and Mr. Santi Vilassakdanont, Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (F.T.I.) have joined in a press conference, in an official announcement of 6 projects cooperation between public and private sectors (FTI - SMEs Project) to provide all the details to Small to Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) as well as finding potential SMEs to join the projects.
The Deputy Minister states that the projects are part of the current government policy to promote and develop small to medium industries all over the country, as part of the cooperation between public and private sectors. For this collaboration, the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP) is assigned to work with F.T.I. in 6 projects; namely: 1) Role Model 2) Incubation Center 3) Business Matching 4) Machine Fund 5) Logistics and 6 Enhancing Industrial Development. The projects cover regional and provincial levels with 800 Million Baht in total budget.
Mrs.Jitraporn Techacharn, Director General of the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP) states that this collaboration is aimed to enhance managerial skills and potentials to all targeted Entrepreneurs. This collaboration will be a good blueprint to promote SMEs at industrial level, as well as enhancing local and global competitiveness. The OSEMP is responsible for assessment including budget control. The F.T.I. is responsible for implementation and management for effective results.
Mr. Santi Vilassakdanont, Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (F.T.I.) states that currently the F.T.T. is implementing according to the plan, which has been progressed approximately 40%; for example, the project to enhance quality printing standard, it organizing Thai Print Awards Competition. The 5 Incubation Centers, which have already been established : in the North (Tak) for precious stones, Northeast (Chaiyapoom) for textile, Central (Bangkok) for porcelain and food processing, East (Chantaburi) for jewelry and South (Nakonsrithammarat) for rubber tree.
As for Business Matching, we have recently organized business matching activities for printing industries in Pack Print International 2007 (April 26-29). A lot of local and international company joined the business matching project. More importantly, there will be Business Matching Day on May 18-20, 2007 at the Ballroom, Queen Sirikit National Conference Center. The target groups are leather and leather products, textile, jewelry and shoe industries. There will be Showcase, Matching Zone along with other activities during the event, to allow entrepreneurs to meet with new suppliers. SMEs that join the Machine Fund project will receive low interest rate (3%) in 5 years. Some SMEs have already applied and interested SMEs are welcome to join.
The Logistics project consists of consultations, seminars, trainings on Logistics and supply chain , including barcode system development.
Industrial Development consists of capacity building, covering 37 industries and 7 provincial groups; Q-Mark Training and other programs, which are beneficial to entrepreneurs, are provided. The Industrial Data Center is for networking of entrepreneurs a source of knowledge to enhance production efficency , using international coding system.The project to enhance quality of raw leather includes the Cluster Development Agent (CDA) program. There have been interested candidates applying and attending trainings continuously.
Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (F.T.I.) said 'These projects are aimed at supporting the entrepreneurs' needs. Overall, they will be major driving forces for enhancing the entrepreneurs' capacities and competitiveness. After the opening function, not only will the entrepreneurs receive all the projects' details, the F.T.I. working team in each project are ready to answer all the enquiries, particularly the application process.'