Two-way push towards ‘entreprenurial society’
THE PUBLIC and private sectors are joining forces to turn Thailand into an entrepreneurial society, where start-ups and nimble small and medium-sized enterprises are groomed to become a major driving force of the economy, said Deputy Prime Minister Somkid
He said educational institutes would play a crucial role to create the new “ecosystem” and help incubate new ideas and new entrepreneurs. Meanwhile Government Saving Bank and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand (SME Bank) have each received Cabinet approval to lend Bt3 billion to SMEs and start-ups, and the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion will knock on the doors of the universities to seek their support.
The Finance Ministry will set up a national centre to register start-ups and form a database of their needs, while the Information and Communications Technology Ministry will focus on grooming technology start-ups.
Big companies that come forward to assist start-ups “in the right way” without “swallowing them” will be offered tax incentives. Laws and regulations will be amended to allow the Bank of Thailand, the Finance Ministry and the Stock Exchange of Thailand to lend more support to start-ups and SMEs.
“In the future, we will see start-ups and smart enterprises in every sector, from manufacturing to services and agriculture. In the near future, we will find a new generation of entrepreneurial farmers,” Somkid said.
The Cabinet will be asked to approve the “One Tambon, One SME Farmer” scheme, in which the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives will play a role, within two weeks. Under the scheme, one farmer from each tambon or subdistrict will be selected to demonstrate his or her best practices in creating value-added farm products such as through processing or packaging farm goods produced by villagers.
Involved ministries and the private sector will jointly hold “Thailand Start-ups Week” from March 24-27 to showcase start-ups from across the nation, as well as inviting experts from abroad to talk at the event.
Yod Chinsupakul, co-founder of Wongnai, a restaurant-search app, told The Nation that Thai laws, particularly those involving capital gains tax and foreign-ownership limitations, were the most important hurdles to development of start-ups in this country.
“The other things are not important. Capital is not a worrying issue since there are plenty of foreign investors willing to invest in start-ups. Technology is also not a worry, since we can use cloud-based infrastructure,” he said.
Many start-ups choose to register their enterprises in Singapore, which does not have a capital gains tax, as they would have to pay that tax in Thailand when they made an exit from their companies, Yod said.
Deputy Commerce Minister Suvit Maesincee said that to support start-ups and SMEs, three key subcommittees had been set up and would work together from different approaches.
The first subcommittee is in charge for adopting strategies to move start-ups and SMEs forward with long-term policies and visions.
The second subcommittee will focus on enhancing standardisation, productivity, and innovations of start-ups and SMEs.
The third will be responsible for supporting and strengthening start-ups and SMEs to put them in the forefront in moving the Thai economy.
Supant Mongkolsuthree, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries, who heads a working team set up to support SMEs, said small and medium-sized businesses currently contributed about 30 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
“We expect to increase the GDP contribution from SMEs to at least 50 per cent in five years,” he said.
Supant said the working team would look for key factors for supporting start-ups and SMEs. Those factors would include how to find potential markets for them and to help them improve efficiency and reduce costs, as well as providing financial support.
Tanawong Areeratchakul, president of SCG Packaging Co and head of a working group set up to promote social enterprises, said the government would provide incentives, including in the areas of taxation and regulation, to encourage big companies to help small entrepreneurs and local communities.
He said there were currently about 1,000 social enterprises in Thailand, but only 200-300 that work actively and systematically.
