More SMEs go high-tech for business success: SCB
SIAM COMMERCIAL Bank says it will give small and medium-sized enterprises more loan support so they can invest in technology and tap a key to business success.
SCB president Yol Phokasub said that in the past five years demand for term loans and loans for working capital had been equal, but at present 80-90 per cent of SME loans were for working capital.
He said SMEs had endured negative impacts for many years and many had missed out on strengthening through technology, which had caused a drop in the import of machines to improve production technology.
“They have used only working capital from banks, and the banks have also witnessed quick repayments from this kind of credit,” he said.
Yol said SCB’s outstanding SME loans should be about Bt350 billion by the year’s end, up from Bt340.5 billion last year.
Despite most SMEs wanting loans for working capital, he said the bank was seeing a trend of more businesses getting term loans. That showed more businesses had realised the importance of technology.
He said technology was a long-term and permanent shift in doing business, and enterprises had to prepare for it along with the ageing society and the power of consumers.
The short- and medium-term shifts were economic uncertainty and drought.
Yol said technological skill, speed, partnerships and succession were the keys to success for new SMEs.
SMEs should be hybrid enterprises riding the digital era, and technology would play a bigger role in helping them become hybrids.
He said SMEs needed a partner to thrive, and SCB was there to advise businesses and build their networks.
He said SCB was a channel promoting SME products via the “SCB-FTI Factory Outlet”, which the bank and the Federation of Thai Industries jointly organised annually. The 12th SCB-FTI Factory Outlet kicked off yesterday and will be held until Friday at Mahisorn Hall in Bangkok.
