GSB Pracharat Project
Government Savings Bank
The Project was created by the cooperation of public and private sectors, people and community which can create benefits and sustainability for people, small entrepreneurs and community economy.
INTRODUCTION
Based on the analysis, the poverty cycle starts from low income people, not enough money for spending as a result of no savings/assets/funds for living. This causes insufficient access to financial services system which causes most grassroots people to turn to high-interest rate informal loans. The income is not enough for expenses and that becomes a continuous cycle. To strengthen the grassroots people, GSB uses “4 keys” which are Supporting Innovative products, Create/Increase Selling channels, create opportunity to access to capital, and Financial Literacy.“GSB Pracharat Project” is the project that supported local wisdom/knowledge, linked business, uplifted quality of life, and promoted community economy to return happiness to people in order to develop innovative products derived from local wisdom, provide financial literacy to small entrepreneurs and grassroots people, create distribution channel for small entrepreneurs, and stimulate grassroots economy of all regions in Thailand and return happiness to people according with the government policy.
FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY
GSB started with determining the problem which we found that for small entrepreneurs they still lack of selling channels, product do not attractive, not enough revenue and economic depression in some provinces. Then, we collect and analyze problems, determine the action plan, finding partners to develop and implement the project and designate the roles together with partners.For Implementation process we divided into 3 activities which are;
Product development and Marketing, GSB cooperates with Thammasart Universities and Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research to develop the old products to become new innovative products, create new selling channel for community products, and teaching entrepreneurs to keep accounts.
Financial literacy development, GSB cooperates with Bank of Thailand to provide training for small entrepreneurs and grassroots people.
For selling channel, in 2017 GSB cooperates with partners in the areas of 10 provinces around Thailand to create GSB Pracharat Market Fair.
ACHIEVEMENT AND IMPACT
“GSB Pracharat Project” had launched since 2014, we helped 15,000 small entrepreneurs to develop their products and marketing, provided Financial Literacy for more than 205,000 people, and support the Distribution Channel through GSB Pracharat Market Fair around Thailand.The Project was created by the cooperation of public and private sectors, people and community which can create benefits and sustainability for people, small entrepreneurs and community economy. As a result, people have knowledge to earn a living and more income for self-reliant and family support, small entrepreneurs can link business into the production chain as a good model for other entrepreneurs, local wisdom/knowledge has been developed as innovation, we created knowledge Management (KM) system of which all communities can access and exchange, and also emerging grassroots economy in various regions from trading, creating employment, well-known products of entrepreneurs through public relations via media.
FUTURE DIRECTION
The Project has been developed continuously to improve life quality of grassroots people according to GSB’s vision.GSB has planned to develop innovative products by extend coordination with other partners around Thailand to serve demands from new customers and markets and develop KM system for the community to preserve the knowledge of local wisdom (Bank of Wisdom).
For Financial literacy development, GSB has cooperation with Bank of Thailand to provide training for small entrepreneurs and grassroots people in personal finance and debt management and keep track of household accounting. In 2017, GSB extend coordination with Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation from Germany to strengthen existing financial literacy initiatives of GSB.
For distribution channels, we currently develop online selling channels (e-Market Place) for small entrepreneurs and promote street food entrepreneurs by using digital channels and payment systems such as e-Market Place and QR Code Payment (GSB Pay).
The Government Savings Bank was mandated by HM King Vajiravudth to introduce savings services to Thailand. Our vision is to be the leader in promoting sustainable development savings habits and enhancing people’s happiness. We focused on delivering sustainability through balanced operational parameters and creating corporate and social value.
