Thailand 4.0 Policy applied to welfare grocery stores

BANGKOK, December 11 (TNA) - The government, in cooperation with the private sector and Thai banks, has applied its Thailand 4.0 Policy to officially-authorized welfare "blue flag" grocery stores in order to help enhance their competitiveness. Thai Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong announced the agreed cooperation between the public and the private sectors at a press conference at his ministry on the outskirts of Bangkok on Tuesday. Sontirat stated that his ministry has signed an agreement with the public and private partners, including his ministry's Department of Internal Trade, Siam Commercial Bank, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand (SME Bank), Thailand Post, Thailandpost Distribution and three private companies, namely Advanced Info Services Public Company Limited (AIS), to jointly support over 60,000 "blue flag" grocery stores across the country to have goods and services to serve low income consumers in their respective areas more comprehensively in order to enhance their competitiveness to be comparable to other modern wholesale and retail stores, including department stores, supermarkets and convenience stores, in the future and to boost their business returns. "The public-private cooperation move, under the so-called "Blue Flag Thong Fah Pracha Rat 4.0" Project, is based on the government's Thailand 4.0 Policy, under which advanced technologies and innovations are focused and utilized", the minister said. (TNA)