The Cabinet, during its mobile meeting in Uttaradit province in the Lower North on 21 January 2013, approved the number of scholarships, proposed by the Ministry of Education.
Before the Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra visited
Uttaradit Rajabhat University to preside over the launching of the
“Entrepreneurship Fund,” aimed at promoting young entrepreneurs.
According to the Ministry of Education, out of the 1,856 scholarships, 928
will be offered to students whose parents earn less than 200,000 baht a year.
They will continue their studies for their bachelor’s degree in both Thailand
and abroad. The remainder will be offered to students wishing to continue to
study for the bachelor’s degree both here and abroad, with an emphasis on the
field of science, where Thailand faces a shortage of able personnel. The
objective is to prepare Thailand for the ASEAN Community in 2015.
Students wishing to obtain a scholarship under the One-District-One-Scholarship
program are required to pass both written examinations and interviews.The
project will be carried out from 2013 to 2020. About 14.49 billion baht will be
spent on the program in the next eight years. In 2013, the Government will
spend 395 million baht, and from 2014 to 2020, another 14.1 billion baht will
be spent on the program.
Apart from Thailand, the countries in which the students will be able to
study include Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China,
Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong (China), Hungary, India,
Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, the
Philippines, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore,
South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates.
The One-District-One-Scholarship program began in 2004. It aims to enable
students from poor families in all districts nationwide to pursue their studies
at university level, either in Thailand or abroad.
As for the Entrepreneurship Fund, it serves like a venture capital fund for
students and those who have graduated within the past five years. These young
entrepreneurs have investment or business plans but lack capital. The
Entrepreneurship Fund will offer a loan of not more than three million baht for
each student or graduate to operate his or her business.
It was launched on 12 December 2012, with cooperation from Krung Thai Bank,
the Government Savings Bank, the Islamic Bank of Thailand, the Bank for
Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, the Small and Medium Enterprise
Development Bank of Thailand, and the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation.
Three educational institutions joining the pilot project include Suranaree
University of Technology in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Uttaradit Rajabhat
University in Uttaradit, and King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi
in Bangkok.
(thailand.prd.go.th)