Govt sets Bt100 bn boost for farmers, start-ups and SMEs

This group will be a key economic driver for Kingdom’s growth, according to Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak.
 He spoke after chairing the opening ceremony of the New Economy Academy (NEA), the government’s first ever institute to train and provide knowledge for the private sector.
Somkid said that the government would focus on training smart farmers, start-up enterprises, and SMEs as they were an important group to support the country’s growth over the next four years.
Under the plan to help farmers, start-ups and SMEs, the government will allocate Bt100 billion to 18 groups for provincial development to increase their competitiveness, Somkid said.
 He said the NEA would then provide training courses for enterprises as the government wanted to promote strong business growth. 
Primarily, the institute would cooperate with educational institutes and universities to provide training programmes for enterprises to help them compete in the digital economy era. 
He said enterprises would be encouraged to do businesses by adopting new technology for doing business in globalisation era.
Deputy Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong has instructed the Business Development Department to create a linkage to promote start-ups and SMEs in doing business through e-commerce. 
He said that with strong growth in electronic trading, enterprises should focus on doing online trading as it would help reduce their costs, while increase trading opportunities internationally.
Sontirat has also ordered the department to draw up development plans for central markets, community markets, and markets for niche products within 3-6 months to help stimulate the domestic economy.
Funding for the market projects will be drawn from the central budget earmarked for the development of 18 provinces.