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Former finance minister Somkid Jatusripitak has urged the government to raise incomes of the puiblic and encourage the private sector to focus on adding value to their products via innovation.
Speaking at a seminar on entrepreneurship hosted by Bangkok University, Somkid, chairman of the university’s council, said Thailand was faced with two major challenges. The first is how to move its people from the medium-income range into the high-income category.
The second challenge is to encourage Thai entrepreneurs to move towards making and marketing higher-value products.
“Local entrepreneurs now lack capability both in terms of investment budgets and research and development. They produce low-value products, resulting in low income and profit,” Somkid said.

THAI CREDIT RETAIL EYES SMALL FIRMS
Thai Credit Retail Bank will focus on loans to small business.
“Small business is operators that have experience in doing business for more than one year and high security. Small business will be important portfolio for the bank,” CEO Winyou Chaiyawan said yesterday. The bank recently increased its registered capital by Bt500 million from Bt2.5 billion to support its expansion plan.
A year after launching the new business focus, small business loans account for Bt2 billion to Bt3 billion of the bank’s total assets of Bt20 billion. Small-business credit lines range from Bt1 million up to Bt5 million.
The bank’s loan portfolio is mostly in SME, hire-purchase and retail credit.

HAL ALUMINUM FOUNDS PLANT
Hal Aluminum (Thailand), the local unit of a global supplier of aluminium die castings and moulds used in the automobile industry, recently held a foundation-stone-laying ceremony for its plant at the Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate in Rayong.
Occupying a 53-rai (8.5-hectare) site, the new facility will boost the company’s capacity to meet rising demand for environmentally friendly aluminium and plastic products through new technologies.

SET LETS TURNOVER TARGET STAND
The Stock Exchange of Thailand is leaving its average daily turnover target for this year at between Bt48 billion and Bt49 billion despite the poor investment sentiment.
Pakorn Peetathawatchai, executive vice president for corporate strategy and finance, said yesterday that the target was being maintained even though the SET Index retreated last month and still suffers from fears of the tapering of the US quantitative-easing programme.
Data from the exchange showed that the market underwent grave volatility in July. Besides the QE-related concerns, the market was under pressure from intensifying political instability at home.
The SET Index closed last month at 1,423.14 points, down 1.98 per cent from the previous month. However, it remained 2.24 per cent higher than last year. Average daily turnover slipped 27.15 per cent from the previous month to Bt45.9 billion, which pulled down market capitalisation to Bt12.35 trillion.