Thai government to offer more help to SMEs

BANGKOK, February 2 (TNA) - The Thai government’s newly-set up committee tasked with offering assistance to local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) affected by the administration's new daily minimum wage hike to 300 baht nationwide, effective from January 1, 2013, has agreed to help develop machineries and to offer soft loans to the SME operators. Thai Industry Minister Prasert Boonchaisuk told the public during the weekly radio and TV programme of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra this morning, saying that the assistance is aimed at lowering operational costs of local SME operators. Prasert acknowledged a recent survey conducted by his ministry found that the new wage hike has increased operational costs of the local businesses by 5.38 per cent on average, especially those in the textile, food and beverage industries, and that the Thai government is collecting the number of SME operators who have been affected by the wage increase so that appropriate assistance measures will be offered to them. Deputy Commerce Minister Nattawut Saikua noted that a total of 3,338 local firms went folded in December 2012, 58 per cent of them dissolved due to accumulative losses and 37 per cent closed down their businesses as they set up affiliated firms to undertake major government’s projects. Meanwhile, Wallop Witnakorn, Vice Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) revealed that the FTI will propose that the Thai government set up a fund to help the affected firms, with the proposal to be raised at the next Joint Public/Private Consultative Committee meeting, set to be held on February 4. (TNA)