“SMEs in other countries have set a vision to look beyond their home country, at the international market. That’s quite different from Thai SMEs, which have looked only at domestic opportunities.”

Many Thai SMEs still lack marketing talent and skills in exploring their businesses at the regional and global level.

Malaysia is a good example. It rolled out an “SME Blueprint” initiative, which allowed the country to raise SMEs’ contribution to gross domestic product from 38 per cent 10 years ago to about 50 per cent today. In the same 10-year period, Thailand only increased SMEs’ contribution to GDP from 37 per cent to 40 per cent.

“Most Thai SMEs are afraid to explore new business opportunities, especially in overseas markets. They still have the same mindset of traditional farmers, who just wait for rain,” Kiatanantha said.

“The government is still short of specific measures designed to upgrade the talents and professional skills of Thai SMEs.

“Many SMEs that are outside the system can’t access funds and other kinds of support from the government’s stimulus campaign,” he said.

The government’s strategic plan to promote local start-ups is quite broad. It should specifically select only 1,000 start-ups with outstanding business

ideas, and promote them as new business models so that they can be followed by other start-ups.

However, it will take at least 10 years for start-ups to grow strong enough to expand by themselves.

According to a survey his faculty conducted on SMEs, one-third of the respondents performed better in the second quarter of this year than in the first quarter.

About 70 per cent of those improved results came from their ability to reduce costs, and 30 per cent from higher revenue.

The survey was conducted from June 15 to July 4 on 427 SMEs, with 40 per cent of them located in Bangkok and the rest in all other regions of the country.

Of the samples, only 70 have ever sold their products abroad.

According to the survey posted in the second quarter of this year, 12.7 per cent of the SMEs surveyed said their revenues were higher than expected.

About 27.2 per cent said revenue was about the same, 45.2 per cent said lower and 14.9 per cent said their revenues were uncertain.

However, when asked about the economy in the second quarter compared with the first, only 0.75 per cent said it performed much better, 12.3 per cent said better, 41.3 per cent said about the same, 39.8 per cent said worse and 5.8 per cent said much worse.

The five negative factors affecting SMEs’ performance in the first six months were insufficient demand in the market, the condition of the economy, shortage of raw materials, higher costs of production and more severe competition.

“From our survey, we found that 40 per cent of SMEs that recorded better business performance were those that were able to adjust to the changing economy and marketing landscape.

“About 60 per cent are benefiting from the government’s measures to stimulate SMEs and the economy,” Kiatanantha said.