PAWEE SIRIMAI
LERTLUCK PAWEEWUN
The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) is urging the government to earmark special funding for government agencies to buy products and technology from the Thai Innovation Register to foster innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Vice-chairman Choenporn Tengamnuay said even though the government had pledged full support for SME innovations, government agencies had not been very active in purchasing innovative new products from the register, which acts as a clearing house for new products and technology from SMEs.
"I think the government should set a budget for government agencies to buy these innovations," he said.
"That would help to create and support a market for these products."
The Thai Innovation Register, under the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), groups together for commercial sale innovative products from Thai companies.
Mr Choenporn said Thai innovative products could not compete with new innovations from giant foreign companies that spent massive sums on research and development (R&D) and could produce at lower cost.
A special budget for buying Thai innovations would support Thai SMEs as well as prevent them from being buried under cheaper foreign innovations, he said.
Mr Choenporn said purchases by government agencies would also improve Thai SMEs' capital and cash flow for creating yet more innovations, eventually improving Thai industry as a whole.
"Without a huge R&D budget, they need a certain amount of sales to be able to run their business," he said.
Thai researchers have strong potential to develop competitive products but need government support in creating specific markets, Mr Choenporn added.
Meanwhile, NSTDA will work closely with the FTI and 19 other state agencies including universities and research institutes to host a technology expo in the near future. It will present new technologies and innovations to companies and government agencies that may be interested in buying them.