BANGKOK, 31 May 2013 Mr. Tanawat Polvichai, Director of the Economic and Business Forecasting Center of the Thai Chamber of Commerce University revealed that Thai SME competitiveness index for the first quarter scored more than 50 out of 100 in every category, indicating medium competitive capacity.
The Business Health Index was at 61.5, Operating Capacity at 59.5, Longevity Index at 57.7. The overall index score was at 59.6.
Mr. Thanawat said that the Tambon-level SMEs’ Operating Capacity scores the least at 51.4, lower than that of the District and Provincial levels. In terms of business types, retailer business has the least score, followed by clothing, food, drinks, restaurant, hotel, tourism, and logistic businesses. Mr. Tanawat said lack of funding is the most common and biggest issue of the business operators.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce Isara Wongkusonkij stated that the index is created to analyze and evaluate local SMEs’ competitiveness whether they are good enough to compete in the world market. He explained that the evaluation uses quarterly data to calculate the score, which will later help in the drafting of policies or improvement measures to address the weakness and other risk factors for SME operators in each group.
