TECH start-ups need tangible, hands-on support from the government to create awareness and a strong ecosystem, besides more access to finance and tax measures to speed up the development and expansion of the industry, according to HUBBA, a Thai co-working space.
The co-working space, created nearly three years ago, currently has around 500 members.
"The government's venturecapital and tax-break measures should be able to provide support for SMEs, but less so for start-ups, since it may take years before they can start to make a profit.
"The increase in the sources of funding should encourage more people, who are aware of the measures and have the know-how, to create more start-ups, but tech start-ups still need more support than that," Amarit Charoenphan, co-founder and co-chief executive officer of HUBBA and Techsauce a website for start-ups - said in an exclusive interview with The Nation .The government's Council of Economic Ministers has introduced a venture-capital fund scheme worth Bt6 billion, and a 4-per-cent interest soft-loan policy for SMEs worth a total of Bt100 billion.