Budget sought for loans to assist local business

The association will propose this idea to the ICT Ministry for approval. The plan is to encourage local SME businesses to use IT to improve their operations while promoting the use of Thai software in the local market.

"As software technology - especially enterprise resource planning applications - can improve the business processes for local SMEs, we had the idea to encourage them to use technology to increase competitiveness," said ATSI's president Somkiat Ungaree.

However, he realised that local SMEs had insufficient funds for IT investment, so the association initiated a project for SMEs to provide soft loans for those who wanted to invest in enterprise resource planning software.

"We're asking the government through the ICT Ministry for funding support. The fund will provide low-interest loans for Thai SMEs to buy software to improve their businesses," Somkiat said.

To stimulate the local software industry, a condition is that applicants purchase only Thai software. The project is expected to not only improve the status of local SMEs but also encourage the use of Thai software.

Somkiat said that the proposed Bt100-million budget was expected to run the project for the whole year. The funding would range from Bt1 million up to Bt10 million per company and the loans had to be paid back within three years.

The project will initially focus on providing soft loans to SMEs in manufacturing, tourism, hospital, food and hospitality industries.  

The president said after the project was approved, there would be the establishment of a steering committee to oversee the project. The committee would consist of representatives from the ICT Ministry, ATSI, the Thai Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Trade of Thailand, the Federation of Thai Industry and banks.

 The committee will oversee approving soft loan to SMEs which meet the criteria. The basic criteria are that the companies have to have competent staff and appropriate hardware. Importantly, they must have real requirements to buy Thai software to improve their business.

"We expect to kick off the project in the next few months. We hope that by the end of this year there will be around 50 SMEs in this project," said Somkait.

The project is part of ATSI's five strategies for 2008, which include creating markets, training, forming alliances, providing software-development funding and adjusting regulations to promote local software development.

Apart from this project, the association also plans to develop 28 projects to stimulate the entire software industry including Software Yes, Software Shop Channel, Kiosk Show Case, Thailand Software Fair, Logistic Information Standard and Thai Health Grid.

"Amongst the 28 projects we plan, if only 10 are a success we believe they will have an impact on the local software industry and at least lift the portion of local software in use from less than 20 per cent of the total to 50 per cent in the next three years," said Somkait.

The association is also working with the Association of Thai Computer Manufacturers to roll out the One Laptop One Student Project.

The concept is to provide affordable laptops - less than Bt15,000 each - for primary students throughout the country. The basic qualification is a 7-inch monitor and a flash-drive hard disk. The association will also propose this idea to the ICT Ministry. It is expected that the project could be developed and executed this year.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation