Ministry of commerce to join hand with financial sector in liquidity boost for jewel industry

Thailand’s gems and jewelry industry has become lively again with the liquidity support by the Department of Export promotion (DEP), Ministry of Commerce.

The Financial support to the industry, particularly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), was made possible with cooperation from the government, private and financial sectors. The EXIM Bank, SME Bank, and the Small Business Credit Guarantee Corporation have singed a memorandum of understanding to extend lendings to Thai and foreign operators starting in March, 2009.

The scopes of cooperation embrace, One is money support for the domestic credit and related services for exporters, and another one is credit guarantee for unqualified exporters who are not eligible to get credit permissions from any financial institutes, and lastly is risk guarantee for exporters in jewel industry who are effected from nonpayment of debts from foreign buyers, plus risk evaluation for banks or buyers, including credit services for export and import – export related industries.

Providing financial assistance is one of the ways to help the jewel industry to overcome impediments and enabling it to have good revenue, growth and remarkable itself to the market. Other crucial elements are that entrepreneurs conduct their businesses in accordance with procedures highlighted under the Ministry’s “Thai Gems and Jewelry Trading Route” campaign.