BANGKOK POST Issued date 13 May 2019
SUCHIT LEESA-NGUANSUK
The Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion (Osmep) is investing 110 million baht to get local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to expand regionally and into China through e-marketplaces.
“Osmep aims to empower local SMEs to expand their online channel capabilities, both domestically and overseas, as part of our digital transformation strategy,” said Suwanchai Lohawattanakul, director of Osmep.
He said the office’s online project wants to make SMEs embrace digital technology to increase competitiveness.
Osmep will integrate collaboration with 14 e-marketplaces and digital marketing operators, including Lazada, which connects to Southeast Asia markets; Shopee, which connects to Singapore; Amazon and Alibaba, which export globally; Thailandmall and Far-e.net, which focus on exports to China; Cambodia-based Kha-leang.com, which helps export in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam; local e-marketplaces like Inwmall and Tarad.com; and Taiwan-based PCHome.
Osmep is also working with Beautynista, which focuses on cosmetics; halal food e-marketplace Pinsouq; Shopseason, an e-marketplace; the search engine Priceza; restaurant review platform Wongnai; and restaurant booking platform Hungryhub.
Osmep cooperates with five academic institutions to train SMEs nationwide to bring their products to e-marketplaces. The five are Thammasat University, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, the Institute for Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Chiang Mai University and Suan Sunanda Rajabhat University.
Osmep aims to have 50,000 SMEs selling 100,000 products online and generating 640 million baht in revenue in 2019.
Under the SME online project, Osmep has trained 120,000 merchants in the last two years and prepared 250,000 online products and services, opening 20,000 new merchants and increasing revenue by 450 million baht.
In 2019, Thailand has 3 million SMEs that are expected to generate 43% of the country’s GDP, up from 42.7% in the first quarter.