Shopee inks pact to help empower SMEs
Mr Sinit, centre left, and Mrs Maneerut, centre right, at the MoU signing.
The Commerce Ministry’s International Trade Promotion Department on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Shopee, an e-commerce platform, to empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to showcase their quality products and sell their products online.
According to Deputy Commerce Minister Sinit Lertkrai, the partnership with the famous e-commerce platform will allow more than 50,000 businesses, mainly SMEs, to sell their products online, with sales of more than 300 million baht expected to be generated over three years.
“The latest partnership with Shopee is a part of Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit’s policy to speed up the country’s international trade in the remaining months of the year and enable Thai businesses in all levels, especially SMEs which are the ministry’s target, to tap into online channels,” said Mr Sinit.
“The Commerce Ministry itself is accelerating to create an international e-commerce network, especially with partners in Asean, which is one of Thailand’s key export markets. And cooperation with a leading shopping platform like Shopee will allow small Thai entrepreneurs who run only one store on the platform to sell their products to customers in three countries: Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
More importantly, through the partnership scheme, Thai entrepreneurs will be entitled to digital skill development to enhance their sales strategies.
Maneerut Anulomsombut, chief executive of Sea (Thailand), the local operating unit of Nasdaq-listed internet giant Sea, which runs Shopee, said the company is pleased to be part of supporting Thai entrepreneurs to expand their export channels to foreign markets with ease and convenience through the Shopee International Platform (SIP), which will help create opportunities and reduce obstacles for local businesses in exporting products to foreign markets.
She said the latest cooperation with the International Trade Promotion Department aims to upgrade and enhance the potential of Thai entrepreneurs to sell their products online and increase awareness and access of foreign buyers to Thai products.
Thai businesses which participate in the SIP will also receive support from Shopee in store management such as building overseas stores, product and stock management, chatting with buyers and shipping abroad without having to pay any fees.
Founded in Singapore in 2009, Sea has three core businesses covering Garena, an online games developer and publisher; SeaMoney, a provider of digital payments and financial services; as well as Shopee.
Sea (Thailand) recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary of operations in the country.
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