Drive for SMEs to embrace IT potential
Software incentives to boost competitiveness
- Published: 27/01/2010 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: Database
With 2.8 million small businesses in Thailand, various government agencies are collaborating with the private sector to encourage greater adoption of information technology through incentive programs designed to strengthen the kingdom's competitiveness.
Yuthasak Supasorn, Director General, Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion (OSMEP), said Thailand has 2.82 million small medium enterprises (SMEs), contributing around 3.4 trillion baht to the economy, or 3.8 percent of Thailand's GDP. This segment also accounts for 1.69 trillion baht, 29 percent, of overall export value.
The government is seeking to uplift this group's IT use to improve their competitive advantage by creating quality websites or performing e-commerce transactions.
In the US, there is a trend that more and more individuals are using technology as tools to create their own online businesses at home. This shows the importance of IT in doing business at any level.
Dr Khunying Kalaya Sophonpanich, Minister of Science and Technology, said the ministry's Software Park recently joined forces with OSMEP, the Department of Industrial Promotion and Microsoft Thailand to implement the WebsiteSpark Program with an investment of 10 million baht.
The three-year program is open to any professional web company that comprises of no more than 10 staff. There is no upfront outlay to take part and companies will be able to download Microsoft software solutions free of charge.
Moreover, participants will receive training from Software Park, while the Department of Industrial Promotion and OSMEP will provide ongoing support by connecting SME web professionals with SME customers in other industries.
Arthit Wuthikaro, Director-General, Department of Industrial Promotion, said every company wants to have their own website, especially SMEs, but they often lack the knowledge or skills required to create them. As such, there is a big demand for web experts within the industrial sector.
Yuthasak added that the program's initial target is to reach 600 independent Thai web companies, creating jobs and generating direct and indirect revenue of around 1.5 billion baht.
Patama Chantaruck, Managing Director, Microsoft (Thailand), added that WebsiteSpark is a global Microsoft project but Thailand is unique because the program collaborates with Government agencies and combines strengths to support a Creative Economy policy to train web designers and programmers to serve vertical sector needs such as tourism and hospitality.
The program will help web developers expand their services to other countries through its global network.
Currently, there are 1.7 billion people worldwide connected to the Internet, of which 42.6 percent are in Asia, illustrating the huge opportunities open to Thailand as a web design hub.
Arthit continued that the department has also allocated 38 million baht in this fiscal year to support the second-year project of "Enhancing SMEs' Competitiveness Through IT", or ECIT, through its partnership with Software Park, the Association of Thai Software Industry (ATSI), Software Industrial Promotion Agency, and ToT .
The three-year project will help SMEs using enterprise resource planning in software as a service model to become "smart SMEs" by improving their business efficiency and reducing costs.
The project also selects Thai ERP software developers with expertise in specific areas such as food, jewellery and automotive to offer their software to be hosted in TOT's data centre.
Vatee Phiravaranuphong, Director, information service at Department of Industrial Promotion, said using hosting models will reduce license costs for SMEs by around 300,000 baht to 3 million baht and overcome shortfalls in skilled IT resources.
SMEs which join this program will use free software for the first year, after which they will pay a fixed monthly fee to the relevant software house and receive a government subsidy of 50 percent towards consultation and implementation costs.
This year the program expects to have 100 factories participating, up from the 78 factories which took part last year. The government's targets is for participating SMEs to reduce their costs by 35 percent within 36 months.
"Over 80 percent of SMEs still rely on manual processes, using only only basic Word and Excel, and still do not use software effectively to improve their business process," Vatee noted.
ATSI president Somkiat Ungaree said the association receives 10 million baht from OSMEP to enhance SME capability through Thai software.
This budget is being put to use from January until mid April to subsidise software costs by 50 percent for SMEs, up to a maximum of 20,000 baht per company.
"We selected 40 companies with customer references and certified quality to help increase confidence in Thai software, and we expect 30 of these companies to become members in this program," he concluded.
source : bangkokpost.com
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