The Industry Ministry has planned further measures to raise the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the export market, says Industry Minister Uttama Savanayana.
He said the ministry is working with related government agencies to draft stimulus packages that will help cut costs and increase SME exports, yielding more revenue from overseas markets.
The government also wants to encourage Thai SMEs to rely more on e-commerce to help increase their export channels.
"This year, we want to see concrete success for Thai SMEs in terms of competitiveness. The prime minister also assigned us to figure out more measures to improve SMEs businesses, encouraging them to export more, especially to Asean members and the CLMV countries," said Mr Uttama, referring to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
According to the plan, Mr Uttama said the government will lend a helping hand to SMEs that are on the track to recovery first in order to help strengthen their recovery and raise exports.
The second group the government will help is businesses that want to change and restructure their operations by using higher technology to improve their operations to meet the Thailand 4.0 scheme, he said.
"We expect to release the new SME support measures by next week. We will then work together with related ministries such as the Commerce Ministry and Science and Technology Ministry to move Thai SMEs' growth forward sustainably," said Mr Uttama.
The Industry Ministry also aims to support SMEs in targeted clusters and industries the government wants to improve using technologies and innovation, in line with the government's Thailand 4.0 initiative.
In another development, Mr Uttama said he will accompany the prime minister to investigate the damage to industries in the South that were hard-hit by the recent flash floods.
He said the government would seek measures to help support industry sectors such as rubber that will suffer supply shortages as heavy rains disrupted tapping. It will look into adding value to rubber products.