SME relief plan moves ahead

The Industry Ministry on Tuesday will forward to the cabinet a proposal aiming to reduce the costs of more than 50,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by 10% over the next three years, says Industry Minister Uttama Savanayana.

The government hopes that the 800-million-baht initiative will create at least 10,000 SMEs this year and 20,000 in the second year.

“Reducing operating costs is one of the best ways to improve SME cash flow, even if these costs increase as a small business grows,” Mr Uttama said.

The new measure will support SMEs looking to renovate factory machinery, implement training programmes, purchase materials and acquire managerial talent.

“This is a special measure, unlike the government’s scheme to entice low-income earners to join training programmes to increase their income,” Mr Uttama said.

The initiative will help SMEs manage production costs, one of the main constituents of companies’ operating costs.

The government plans to talk to key business players like the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking on Monday to prepare the policy, Mr Uttama said.

“The ministry will talk to the business sector to make the policy work for local SMEs,” he said.

In the past, the government has proposed SME support measures like the industry transformation centre, the SME support centre, SME big data, Big Brothers, financial literacy and soft loans for SMEs.

The government accelerated the launch of its first 78-billion-baht SME soft-loan package to 2018. Plans call for issuing soft-loan funds in the first quarter of the year, to be divided among three programmes.

The local economy loan programme will receive 50 billion baht, the transformation loan initiative (to update machinery) will get 20 billion baht, and the micro SME programme will get 8 billion baht.