SMEs fully resume businesses after Thailand's flooding late last year

BANGKOK, May 11 (TNA) - Industry Minister M.R. Pongsvas Svasti says that 100-per cent of 5,664 local small and medium-scaled enterprises or SMEs seeking assistance from the government, in the wake of Thailand's flooding crisis late last year, have already resumed their businesses, thanks to urgent rehabilitation projects provided by the administration. M.R. Pongsvas acknowledged that the rehabilitation for the local flood-hit SMEs includes the “Industrial Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Flood-affected Enterprises” project offering to about 3,000 SMEs in 34 provinces, and that the government has allocated a budget of some 148 million baht to fund the project, set to be implemented by his ministry's Department of Industrial Promotion and about 30 other allied units from March-July 2012. According to the industry minister, the allied parties have deployed over 500 experts to rehabilitate the flood-affected SMEs, with their initial work covering inspection and machine repair and maintenance. The minister revealed that the project is moving to an in-depth rehabilitation stage providing to about 1,000 flood-damaged SMEs and dealing with the comprehensive business administration which ranges from production to marketing in order to prepare them for the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015, and that about 400 of them have entered the process and 500 others will follow suit within this month; while all the process will be complete by July. Besides, the Thai minister noted that his ministry will deploy more consultants to adequately serve over two million SMEs to prepare them for the forthcoming integrated market of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and that his ministry also plans to establish a center to study marketing for the Thai SMEs' products in other ASEAN neighboring countries. (TNA)