Page 91 - Social Enterprise A New Business Paradigm for Thailand

inclusion of vulnerable populations, childcare, access to employment and training, and
dependency management.

2.2) Businesses that produce goods and services with a social purpose beyond traditional social

services, such as facilitating employment access for disadvantaged groups.

In addition, the SBI identifies several major challenges facing social enterprises:

1. Limited access to financial support from government agencies, investors, and financial
institutions;
2. Low public awareness and understanding of social enterprises;
3. Legal and regulatory barriers, particularly government procurement rules that are not
conducive to social enterprise participation.

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To address these issues, the SBI proposed a strategic action plan composed of several measures :

1. Improving access to funding for social enterprises. This includes a range of initiatives such as:

▪ Promoting access to private capital markets by establishing a legal framework for social
investment funds, enabling social enterprises to better access financial markets. It also
supports legal and institutional frameworks for microcredit systems to benefit small-scale
entrepreneurs.
▪ Mobilizing EU funds, including the allocation of €90 million to financial instruments that
support social enterprises at various stages, whether start-ups or those in development or

expansion phases.
▪ Increasing the visibility of social entrepreneurship involves identifying and showcasing best
practices and model social enterprises. It also includes developing databases on social
enterprise labels and certification systems, promoting learning and capacity-building among
national and regional agencies involved in strategy development and financial support, and
establishing platforms for knowledge exchange among social entrepreneurs, incubators,
social investors, and other relevant stakeholders.
▪ Improving the legal environment entails addressing legal challenges faced by social
enterprises, including those structured as foundations or mutual societies. This includes

enhancing access to public procurement opportunities by incorporating social and
environmental criteria, and providing government subsidies for the delivery of public services
by social enterprises.

Since the European Commission’s adoption of the SBI in 2011, the European Council, which
comprises the heads of state of EU member countries, issued a formal policy in 2015 to promote

23 Social Business Initiative, op. cit., pp. 6–11.
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