Small firms told to shape up before AFC

Business leaders yesterday called for small business units to be an integral part of each province's development and for government agencies to ensure the country's competitiveness when market gates are thrown open under the Asean Economic Community.

Dusit Nontanakorn, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC), said local enterprises, in particular small businesses, face the need to develop rapidly to ensure their survival and staying power after market liberalisation.

But the national development plan is not enough to stimulate growth in the private sector, in particular small businesses.

"The country's national agenda is too wide and has no focus on a particular industry that needs attention. The private sector must move forward with our own action plans to strengthen business growth," Dusit said.

The chamber's 27th annual convention in Chiang Mai ends today. Top on the agenda are to put forward the first micro-economic action plan for the chamber's development and prepare its members for the Asean Economic Community (AEC).

"If Thai businesses have not developed and changed, they will face difficulty after the market frees up," Dusit said.

It is incumbent on the private sector to draw up a plan that can actually be implemented instead of waiting for the government to provide support all the time, he said.

The chamber wrapped up its micro-action plan for seven selected industries.

After hearing opinions from the chamber's members during a seminar, the chamber will immediately implement its action plan, he said.

As the action plan needed cooperation from the government on some issues, the chamber will next week meet Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to ask for the government's support.

The seven targeted industries are food and agriculture, garments, jewellery, construction, healthcare, tourism and cross-border trading. The chamber will focus not only on the development of each industry and service cluster, but also on regional and provincial development.

The chamber also aims to cut the logistics cost burden for businesses. Logistics costs run at about 19 per cent of gross domestic product. The chamber expects that its micro-action plan will help bring that down to 15 per cent.

Under the micro-action plan, the chamber is confident that the economy will expand considerably in the next five years. Each business and industry will also be in better shape to weather globalisation, Dusit said.

The chamber will add more businesses and industries to its micro-action plan next year. It will also invite other private organisations, including the Federation of Thai Industries and the Thai Bankers Association, to adopt the plan in the next two years.

To increase accessibility for the TCC's work with its 75 provincial chapters, it has set up an information technology system to connect them with the head office in Bangkok, where a database will be maintained.

The network will facilitate data transfers, real-time communications and interactive activities.

The 75 chambers have been divided into five regions - North, South, East, West and Northeast.

Each region will have an information centre to feed into the central database. The first regional centre will be opened in Phitsanulok soon. The regions have to develop and collect information on their provinces to support the information centre in the capital.