Community Enterprise Promotion Act, B.E. 2548 (2005) was originated from
the drive of communities’ representatives since B.E. 2544 (2001) by taking into
account the need to legalize the status of groups in the communities, who carry out
activities as community enterprises, and to promote community enterprises in a
concrete means. In this connection, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives set
up a committee to draft the act on community enterprise promotion which was
subsequently proposed for consideration according to legislative procedures. The
Community Enterprise Promotion Act was then promulgated in the Government
Gazette no. 122 section 6 A on January 18, B.E. 2548 (2005) and entered into force
since January 19, B.E. 2548 (2005).
The reason for promulgation of this act is that a certain existing community
economy is not ready for trade competition at both domestic and international
levels. So, it is deemed necessary to empower the communities to be self-reliant
and to strengthen communities’ economy for their readiness in the future trade
competition at all levels, including the development of community enterprises
towards small and medium entrepreneurs. This should be done through promotion
of knowledge and local wisdom, income generation, mutual help, managerial
capacity-building, and development of community enterprises types.