Deputy Industry Minister Piyabutr Cholvijarn said the six projects were for upgrading industrial standards in the printing and rubber industries; SME incubation centres; business matching; machine funding; logistics; and development projects classified by sectors.

Jitraporn Techacharn, director-general of the Office of SMEs Promotion, said the cooperation between the government and private sector was aimed at improving business management skills for targeted SMEs. The office's role is as a mediator in coordinating with several state agencies to follow up on the project progress.

 Meanwhile, Federation of Thai Industries' chairman Santi Vilassakdanont said the projects had already progressed to about 40 per cent completion. For example, the project to upgrade standards has been arranged to make the printing sector more competitive.

He said the incubation-centres project had been established and was open for applications by centre operators.

In regard to the business-matching project, the Pack Print International 2007 was held last month. In addition, May 18-20 will be Business Matching Days for the leather, textile and garment, jewellery and shoe industries.

As for machine-funding, Santi said five-year loans with 3-per-cent annual interest were available. "Many SMEs are applying for the loans" he added.

Moreover, logistics management programmes in the form of training sessions, seminars and consulting have been provided to SMEs, he said.