OSMEP claims success of SME Provincial Champions Programme

OSMEP says the 2017 plan for the programme is being constantly administered to develop innovative products and technologies and to upgrade to “SME 4.0”.
OSMEP director Salinee Wangtan said the office continued to promote SMEs as a key mechanism for strong and sustainable national economic development.
The SME Provincial Champions Programme was established in 2015 is a part of OSMEP’s strategy to promote small and medium-sized enterprises with the following purposes.
1. To create a potential business model as an economic propulsion mechanism at the provincial level.
2. To support a business model that can transfer business knowledge management to all SMEs in the region.
3. To create an integrated system to help promote SMEs at all levels and in all directions.
The office selected 222 business operators to participate in potential development programmes from every province across the country. These consisted of 72 start-ups, 74 “rising stars”, and 76 “turnarounds”.
OSMEP says it has managed to integrate collaboration from government agencies and relevant private enterprises in assessment and diagnosis. These include the Ministry of the Interior, the Department of Industrial Promotion of the Ministry of Industry, the Commerce Ministry’s Office of the Permanent Secretary, the Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Trade of Thailand. 
An in-depth study found that the start-up group focused on sales performance rather than productivity. Therefore, the best development approaches were to standardise products and improve packaging and marketing strategies, as these would result in higher sales.
At the rising-star group already had expertise in sales, there was a need to increase productivity or to reduce production costs. 
The turnaround group was the one experiencing sales and financial difficulties. Hence development approaches must be to increase both sales performance and productivity as well as financing to solve financial-liquidity problems.