Bualuang SME Club celebrates its 20th anniversary by organizing an ‘SME Transformation’ seminar to provide knowledge to entrepreneurs and opening a clinic to offer advice for SME to adapt to the digital age for sustainable growth
September 13, 2023
Bualuang SME Club celebrated its 20th anniversary by organizing ‘SME Transformation’ seminar to bring top executives and leading businesses to share experiences and provide knowledge to entrepreneurs, and opened clinic to offer advice for SME on how to adapt to the digital age to ensure sustainable growth.
Bangkok Bank President Chartsiri Sophonpanich welcomed Bualuang SME Club members and entrepreneurs to the SME Transformation: Business Transformation, Growth and Sustainability seminar on the occasion of Bualuang SME Club’s 20th anniversary, highlighting the fact that SME are an integral part of the country's economic development. Currently, Thailand has more than 3 million SME, creating job opportunities for more than 12 million people and generating more than 35% of the country’s GDP. In addition, SME play an important role in the supply chains of many businesses in Thailand such as the automotive industry. Bangkok Bank recognizes the potential of SME and places great importance on supporting them to be the driving force for the country’s economic growth and promoting Thailand to become an important production base of the region and the world at large.
“We not only support SME in loans and financial services, but also aim to be a facilitator that helps them coordinate with government and educational institutions to continuously pass on knowledge and innovative technology, connecting them to new businesses and supply chain networks. The Bank also provides opportunities for entrepreneurs to present their products and services through the bank's media channels,” said Mr. Chartsiri.
In addition, during the outbreak of Covid-19, the Bank joined with the BOT to provide soft loans to entrepreneurs who lack liquidity due to the economic slowdown so that they will be able to sustain their businesses and maintain the employment of their staff to wait for the economy to recovery. At the same time, the Bank also provides loans to entrepreneurs who wish to expand their business. For those who want to adjust their business model in line with changing market conditions, the Bank is willing to support them both in terms of investment and know-how. Thousands of entrepreneurs have benefitted from this special loan.
Bangkok Bank Executive Director Pichet Durongkaveroj talked about the topic of ‘Challenges and Solutions in Developing Thai SME’, saying: “According to the Office of SMEs Promotion (OSMEP), Thailand’s GDP is approximately 17 trillion baht with SME accounting for one third of that amount. Service businesses account for the largest proportion at more than 40%.”
Currently, Thai SME face problems in areas such as costs, a lack of skilled labor, in-depth knowledge and competitiveness. More importantly, the thing that Thai SME still lack is the cooperation both from the public and private sectors in order to encourage them to apply more innovation to their businesses both in terms of digital technology and environment.
“In the digital age, SME must use knowledge in innovation and technology to adapt to a rapidly changing world. If they don’t adapt, it will cascade into a digital disruption until their businesses are unable to continue. Today, many government agencies and private organizations have measures in place to support the business sector to enable it to be more resilient and transition more smoothly into the digital era in a sustainable way,” said Mr. Pichet.
To celebrate Bualuang SME Club’s 20th anniversary, the ‘SME Transformation: Business Transformation, Growth and Sustainability’ seminar has been organized not only to provide knowledge from top executives from leading organizations, but also to allow entrepreneurs to see examples of 10 outstanding SME from Bualuang SME Club that have adopted technology and innovations to their businesses with great success. In addition, in the event, there is a clinic to provide advice from partner agencies, such as a BOI booth providing domestic and international investment advice, a DEPA booth offering advice on how to help businesses adapt in the digital age, an NIA booth promoting the shaping of SME into innovative organizations in an appropriate environment, and the NSTDA booth supporting research and development to help solve problems in the manufacturing and service sectors. What’s more, participants can request investment advice at the Bangkok Bank booth, which offers special interest rates on products such as Bualuang Green loans for SME to enable them to tackle business challenges and grow together in a sustainable way.
Bangkok Bank Director and Senior Executive Vice President and Corporate Secretary Kobsak Pootrakool said under the topic of ‘Future of the Thai Economy and Impact on SME’ that Thai SME must prepare themselves to deal with four important issues in the future:
- 1. Adaptation in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 era where technology changes rapidly – Thai SME must adapt themselves in a timely manner while using innovation to reduce costs and increase their competitiveness.
- 2. Join the new Supply Chain – The conflict between China and the US will intensify and lead to new opportunities for ASEAN. It is expected that more investment will flow into ASEAN countries, and it is believed that within 5 years, this will bring significant changes to ASEAN both in terms of investment and tourism. This, therefore, provides an opportunity for Thailand to become a production hub in ASEAN.
- 3. Opportunities in Asia and ASEAN – Increased connectivity will increase prosperity in major cities. This will provide Thai SME with more opportunities to sell their products and services both domestically and internationally.
- 4. New measures in a changing world, such as environmental measures, labor measures and financial measures – SME must study and understand these measures to prepare themselves to change and adapt going forward.
Mr. Supachai Chintanalert, Chief Executive Officer of Suksomboon Group, a member of Bualuang SME Club said the company joined the Club at its inception, around the period the company established the first palm oil manufacturing facility in the east, which was not seen as conducive to growing oil palm trees. The company received operational knowledge from Bangkok Bank executives through the Club and was able to innovate a solution, which at the time was risky and untested, that allowed them to make the operation work. Dr. Kosit Panpiemras, the former Bangkok Bank Executive Chairman, suggested that innovation was not only about machines or technologies that require high investment but included things like cost management and labor management strategies to promote effective business operations. If an SME operator could manage these challenges, the business would be able to overcome any situation.
“Members of the Club have been consistently exchanging insights among ourselves and with the Bangkok Bank economic team. The insights and information gained serve as an important manual for SME operators to prepare for future changes. For Suksomboon Group, the insights we gained during Covid helped us to assess the situation and turned a crisis into an opportunity that enabled us to grow our sales volume by three times compared to the normal situation.” said Mr. Supachai.
Mr. Kulchoke Popattanachai, President and CEO of AI Group and A.I. Technology, another member of Bualuang SME Club, said the SME business group plays an important role in the development of the Thai economy but lacks business management knowledge, which Bualuang SME Club aims to provide through seminars, domestic and international business trips and business matching. Most importantly, it will encourage the exchange of information which will be valuable for similar businesses to adapt and scale their own operations. He went on to suggest that new businesses really understand their strengths and weaknesses, make an assessment of the future business situation, learn to minimize investment risks, develop skills and manage resources efficiently while implementing new technologies.
The SME Transformation: Business Transformation, Growth and Sustainability seminar was jointly organized by the Bank and the Club to provide knowledge and strengthen capabilities of SME operators. The seminar was joined by top executives of leading organizations who shared knowledge and direct experience including Bangkok Bank and its partner organizations, namely The Office of the Board of Investment (BOI), The Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA), The National Innovation Agency (NIA), The National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Siam Cement Group (SCG) and Bualuang SME Club members who gave talks on several topics which aimed to help businesses to efficiently cope with drastic changes from the economic situation and new global regulations.
Bualuang SME Club has supported the development of Bangkok Bank entrepreneurs since 2003. The club was initiated by the former Executive Chairman Dr. Kosit Panpiemras who wanted to build a network for SME. It began with a congregation of entrepreneurs who participated in the Bank’s training program and formed the Bualuang SME Club. The club receives continued support from the Bank to actively play a role as a center of business network for information sharing, collaboration and promotion of the club to be known more widely in order to build and strengthen the network to support sustainable growth of Thai SME. At present, there are over 2,000 Bualuang SME Club members across the country actively working together under the slogan of “good relations, strong network, building knowledge, supporting businesses”.
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