Government to escalate industry transition to 4.0 within the one year remaining term

The government is now escalating transition of industries to industry 4.0 and expedite secondary tourism destination programs before it’s term in office is going to expire in the remaining one year when election is expected to be held.

The escalation of transition to digital technology was revealed by the deputy prime minister in charge of economy, Mr Somkid Jatusripitak, when he addressed the government’s 4.0 strategy to top industry officials yesterday at the Ministry of Industry.

At the meeting, Mr Somkid ordered the Ministry of Industry to speed up measures to lay a solid groundwork to facilitate SME development within the remaining 1 year of the administration’s term so that the next government will have a strong foundation to work from.

But he cautioned that positive progress must be shown prior to April 11 when officials from the Japanese Ministry of Commerce arrive to check on progress being made to promote SME development following the joint signing of MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) agreements earlier with Japan.

He urged the Ministry of Industry to promote rural products and handicrafts to promote tourism to secondary destinations.

He said the ministry will be responsible for developing village level industries at more than 100 selected locations in order to attract tourism to these formerly unexploited destinations.

Provincial industry offices must actively identify and locate potential homegrown products and assign appropriate programs for their development in order to facilitate visitors to each of their areas of responsibility, he said.

In May, he said he will be calling officials from all provinces to check on progress being made.

Meanwhile Industry Minister Uttama Saowanayon reported that programs to promote SME growth is already progressing ahead.

New business opportunities are being created via a mutual effort with Japanese business to foster business to business (B2B) links through the T-GoodTech program.

He said Japan has generously provided direct links to its own J-GoodTech program for Thai SMEs which has 1,600 members.

He added that if everything goes as planned by the end of 2018, no less than 2,600 SMEs will have joined the program in accordance with the government’s wish to steer local SMEs along the Thailand 4.0 master plan.