State banks to provide THB2 billion loans to support rubber industry
State-owned banks will provide 2 billion baht in loans to help support the rubber industry — from farmers to rubber processing companies — as exporters of rubber products are expecting a 5% growth.
Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith promised the loans on Wednesday when he chaired a ceremony to sign a memorandum of cooperation between nine agencies to support the rubber industry.
The ceremony was held at the Finance Ministry. The nine signatories included the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Krungthai Bank, the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation and the Export-Import Bank of Thailand.
Arkhom said state banks would support funds for the industry from the upstream to the midstream and downstream or from rubber farmers to latex processing plants to factories that make products from rubber.
Arkhom said the memorandum signing would allow businesses to access information and to add value to their rubber products so that Thailand would be able to compete in the world markets with sustainability.
Chaicharn Charoensuk, president of the Thai National Shippers' Council (TNSC), said the council expected the export of rubber and rubber products to grow even while exports of other goods would contract this year.
The TNSC expected rubber exports to grow by 5%, he said.
Currently, rubber exports are valued at 680 billion baht a year, covering some 6 million people, starting with farmers who grow rubber trees over 18 million rai (2.88 million hectares) of land.
At the midstream, there are factories that process rubber latex and rubber woods. And at the downstream, there are factories that make medical products, auto parts, construction materials and other products from rubber latex and wood, Chaicharn added. Most of operators at the downstream are small and medium-sized enterprises, he said.
The nine signatories would continue to help all stakeholders of the rubber industry obtain loans and comprehensive information to enhance their business chances as well as find export markets for them, Chaicharn said.
He said the project is also aimed at increasing the quality of life of rubber farmers and to ensure that rubber products makers follow the Bio-Circular-Green Economy model.
