Page 22 - Social Enterprise A New Business Paradigm for Thailand

2. Supply-Side Challenges
Beyond demand, social enterprises also face structural constraints on the supply side. Two key

groups illustrate this:

1) Producers are widely dispersed and difficult to organize
In this group, production capacity is scattered, making aggregation and coordination difficult.
Addressing this requires the use of technology and online platforms to bring together
decentralized producers and develop work-from-home job models, such as using AI to
generate video content or input large-scale datasets. These enterprises need technical and
financial support from existing government agencies.
2) Producers with disabilities lack consistent or adequate skills

This group includes people with disabilities, many of whom lack specific skills or show
inconsistency in applying them. While Thailand has a large national disability fund available
to support them, people with disabilities often struggle to access or utilize it effectively.
A promising approach would be to gather data to better understand how to create markets
for people with disabilities and identify business models they can run independently or
collaboratively. Additionally, there should be support to help them write project proposals to
access funding and develop their own enterprises or community groups. The capital is
available, but what is needed are social organizations or social enterprises to step in and help
operationalize and manage the resources.

Policy Recommendations

1. Public Policy

1) Amend the Social Enterprise Promotion Act, B.E. 2562
This law has been in effect for five years and is due for review and revision, based on
lessons learned from its implementation. The following amendments are proposed:

• Provide an annual government budget allocation of no less than 100 million baht per

year for five years to the Office of Social Enterprise Promotion (OSEP) to strengthen
the social enterprise fund. After five years, the size of the budget should be reassessed
based on performance, institutional capacity, and personnel needs.
• Revise the tax incentive measures for investors to allow share transfers without having
to return the previously claimed tax deduction, provided that the shares have been
held for at least five years, and that the transfer is made only to another social
enterprise.

• Reduce the reporting burden for small social enterprises with annual revenue below
10 million baht by allowing them to use simplified indicators or narrative outcome

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