Coaching for villages, SMEs in the works

The Industry Ministry plans to disburse funds for its Creative Industry Village (CIV) scheme, aiming to invite 317 firms to join as business coaches.

The CIV is a 22-billion-baht state project intended to help villages, small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) and farmers increase their income under the Pracha Rat (People’s State) initiative.

Kobchai Sungsitthisawad, director-general of the Department of Industry Promotion, said many companies have accepted the invitation to join the CIV programme, such as PTT, Thai Beverage, SCG, Thai Union Group, Nissan and Denso.

“These companies will be like big brothers, fostering businesses run by villagers, SMEs and farmers in upcountry provinces,” Mr Kobchai said. “They will utilise innovation and technology to design a suitable training programme for each SME.”

He said most products are from the agricultural sector, emphasising the need to coach villagers about processed products, packaging designs and competitive marketing channels.

Moreover, the “big brother” companies will provide outlets to sell local products.

The CIV programme is aimed at the local tourism sector and community enterprises.

The government expects local villagers, SMEs and farmers to build up businesses by themselves, Mr Kobchai said.

“The result of the CIV scheme is provincial economic development that will lead to longterm progress,” he said.

The department aims to develop 160 villages in 76 provinces, following the Pracha Rat scheme, which seeks to create 600 new agricultural SMEs for the rest of the year.

The government expects the new agricultural SMEs to generate more than 40% of community income.

Mr Kobchai said that the department, through the Finance Ministry, has requested a supplementary budget for the CIV scheme from the 22-billion-baht annual budget.

Last month, Industry Ministry representatives visited Pattawee subdistrict in Makham district, Chanthaburi province to promote the new CIV villages.

The government wants to promote connected fruit products in eastern Thailand via the Eastern Fruit Corridor (EFC) project.

The EFC will be the first fruit auction market in Thailand to promote and expand valueadded fruit products and fruit processing.

The government expects the CIV project to increase community income by more than 25% through tourism and local products.