The budget will cover a certifying process and a follow-up stage. It will also meet the costs of educating operators about the standards required for their work.

Secretary-general Pairoj Sanyadechakul said the institute had already released 1,351 standards for community products and certified about 23,000 One Tambon One Product operators.

However, it plans to launch another 200 voluntary standards and more than 30 new mandatory standards this year, a significant increase over last year's 130 and 14, respectively.

"We receive a lot of requests to provide new standards, especially from exporters. So we plan to increase new standards 60 per cent this year instead of only by 10-20 per cent like in past years," he said, adding that most of the new standards would apply to electrical appliances and the electronics industry.

After a meeting yesterday about the government's productivity project, Industry Minister Kosit Panpiemras said there were already 10 industries, including auto parts, textiles, food, plastics, shoes and rubber products, proposing strategies for improved productivity.

"If other industries are interested in joining the project, we'll always welcome them, but their plans must conform to our strategies," said Kosit.

The core strategies concentrate on developing human resources in terms of skills and knowledge, setting up business partnerships among operators in each industry to formulate plans to reduce logistics costs and applying modern technologies.

Plans for the scheme are expected to be completed in March and implemented in October.

Chalida

Ekvitthayavechnukul

The Nation