Bangkok Post, Thailand, Guest Column.

Dec. 6--Some banks, such as the Government Savings Bank, announced recently that they plan to lend to communities, community enterprises and small and medium enterprises.

Such a pro-active step is positive for the economic development of the country and, besides enhancing job creation, could contribute to environmentally healthy communities.

Here comes the question: do we really understand community enterprises that can create a substantial impact for the better of the community members?

If the answer is yes, then they are doomed to work like all the other business enterprises following the principles of competition. More knowledge, information and technology are needed to support the product development and increase value added and differentiation.

This leads to the decisive principle that only viable community enterprises have a chance to survive in societies of an open monetary economy.

An attitude such as "produce first" and "look for your market later" would not help community enterprises to stay alive in the long run. Only a clear market orientation contributes to competitiveness. The same principle should also apply for the One Tambon, One Product programme.

A more encouraging role by the government should be to create efficient access to data for communities and SMEs. This should be coupled with research and development and adaptive learning processes for product quality and design improvement. This would boost productivity and lead to competitiveness of the community's economy.