Commerce Ministry-Alibaba to push SME-OTOP products to world market

BANGKOK, Jan 24 (TNA) -- Thai Department of Business Development (DBD) joins forces with one of China's largest e-commerce platform, Alibaba.com or Alibaba to encourage Thai SME and OTOP entrepreneurs to market their goods via e-commerce to increase profit. DBD Director-General Ms Pongpun Gearaviriyapun said after the meeting with Alibaba executives that the DBD has given special importance to e-commerce businesses, as the platform is being most favoured by world consumers and the platform is showing signs of leaping growth, with e-commerce businesses valuing at over 2.03 trillion baht in 2015. Despite the platform's popularity, only a few Thai SME and OTOP businesses are using the system to market their products t the rest of the world, she said, adding that the department has then decided to join forces with Alibaba, and the Department of International Trade (DIT), which is currently managing the thaitrade.com, one the websites run by the Commerce Ministry, as well as the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) to organise knowledge training on international e-commerce, along with the development of knowledge on products and packaging to SME and OTOP entrepreneurs, as well as the general public who is interested in investing in e-commerce businesses. Apart from gaining the knowledge on all the know-hows of e-commerce, participants in the training would also receive a membership with Alibaba.com, in which they would also be able to sell their products. Ms Pongpun said her department would start to accept participant for training in February 2016, and those interested in joining the training could search for more information via the department's website at www.dbd.go.th and through the www.trustmarkthai.com website. She said the cooperation between DBD and Alibaba would help to create opportunity and support for SME and OTOP businesses to use e-commerce as an extended platform in expanding their businesses, which would coincide with the government's policy to encourage more Thai businesses to use technology to help their businesses grow by increasing marketing channels and competitiveness. (END)