The One Tambon One Product (OTOP) policy was initiated right along with the supportive policy of the SMEs, both of which are regarded as laying the economic foundation of the country. In essence, the policies of OTOP and SMEs have one goal in common, which is the attempt to strengthen the small business units all over the country for the benefit of country's sustainable economy. The only difference is the OTOP policy stresses the community is able to be self-reliance, job & income generation by using its folk wisdom and local resources, and future walks of life from generation to generation. Once people in the community are united and the local grounds are potent, the whole mechanisms both public and private sectors will properly be linked with fast access to information and prompt correction to the problems.

Government has taken the OTOP policy seriously with a number of tangible plans, for instances, establishment of the special agencies for assistance in product development to meet the quality standards and marketing requirements, arrangement of the financial sources, business advisory, market promotion, and the promotional website "www.Thaitambon.com".

In fact, the local products from community under the OTOP policy do not just mean the product itself but also include thinking process, service, natural and environmental conservation, way of living, tourism, folk wisdom,

culture and tradition and all regarding valuable resources of that community.

In recent years, the local products from community are drawing attentions from many
countries since they build long-term development and solid economic foundation of the
country. Thailand has successfully implemented the OTOP policy to be the tool for building
fundamental economic development and better quality of life. As a host country, Thailand
will lead the APEC 2003 meeting under the topic of micro-enterprise promotion. Since the
launch of the OTOP policy, sale volume of the local products was remarkably boosted,
from 215.5 million baht in 2001 to 22,286 million baht in 2002.

During 2001-2002, Government announced to commence “One Tambon One
Product” movement. National One Tambon One Product Administrative
Committee was appointed to be the absolute body responsible for
directing, supervising, and assessing all measures and activities
regarding OTOP to fulfill its goals and objectives. National OTOP
administrative Committee appointed 9 subcommittees including
Planning and Budgeting Subcommittee, Production Promotion
Subcommittee, Product Standard and Classification Subcommittee,
Marketing Promotion Subcommittee, Research Development and
Technology Subcommittee, Public Relation Subcommittee,
Monitoring and Evaluation Subcommittee, International Affairs
Subcommittees, and Regional OTOP Subcommittee.

In 2003, National OTOP Administrative Committee appointed 5
subcommittees to replace the former 9 subcommittees:

1. Management Subcommittee

2. Production Promotion Subcommittee

3. Marketing Promotion Subcommittee

4. Product Standard and Quality Development Subcommittee

5. Regional One Tambon One Product Subcommittee

And, the other two subcommittees working directly in local area

5.1 Provincial One Tambon One Product Subcommittee

5.2 District One Tambon One Product Subcommittee

National OTOP Administrative Committee set up Office of One Tambon One Product Coordination, the center collaborating with all subcommittees on planning, budgeting, and implementing. The committee exercised integrative working among government agencies and allocated the budget through SMEs Promotion Fund.

OTOP has been systematically driven through the function of National OTOP Administrative Committee, 7 specialized subcommittees, and various government agencies. Apparently, all involved parties have mutually worked to fulfill OTOP goals and objectives; they have applied fully integrative working in all dimensions: planning, budgeting and implementation.

National OTOP Administrative Committee Developing the policies and measures to drive the OTOP Movement, overseeing subcommittee's operating, and allocating the budget.

Subcommittees Establishing implementation plan, supervising and monitoring government agency's operating.

Government Agencies Carrying out activities to develop, support, and promote OTOP.

2001-2002; At the beginning, OTOP operating emphasized on making public: people, government officials, academic persons, understand about the OTOP philosophy and its methodology. Likewise, it started to promote local people to collaborate and employ their local wisdom in product development.

2003; During this year, OTOP intensely focused on improvement of product quality; it developed Community

Product Standard system and implemented production process improvement schemes. Also, underscoring
its selling channel expansion; it implemented a variety of marketing activities both domestic and
international.

2004; To direct all OTOP operating more effectively and efficiently, OTOP Roadmap 2004 was
announced as an annual operating blueprint, providing steps of works and schedule. According
to OTOP Roadmap 2004, OTOP still focused on improvement of product quality and standard,
together with enhancement of communities competency. OTOP producers are required to
attend the tailor-made management courses and all 3-5 star OTOP products are demanded to
get any official product standard certification.

- Improving Knowledge and Competency
In 2004, “SMART OTOP” Program, the general business courses tailor-made for
registered OTOP producers, was set off to improve their basic knowledge about
doing business: management, accounting, finance, and marketing, along with
production improvement. The program was arranged into 2 sections: OTOP
producer section and government official section; there were 26,537
producers and 5,886 officials attended in each section.

- Upgrade Product Quality and Product Standard
OTOP Product Champion (OPC), the product classification system, was
originated in 2003. The classification is first and foremost aimed to
appraise quality of OTOP products and capability of OTOP producers.
Accordingly, the classification criteria have been covered every aspect:
management, product, production, product standard, and commercial potential.
To have the classification done systematically and completely, the operating
was sequentially arranged at district, province, cluster of provinces, and country.
In the end, all products would be classified into 1-5 star products. In 2003 and
2004, there were 16,808 and 27,889 producers participating in the OPC
campaign respectively.

- Marketing Promotion
“ OTOP City ”, the biggest OTOP trade fair and exhibition, has been annually
arranged since 2003. As a main distribution channel of OTOP products,
OTOP City has outstandingly boost OTOP sale, create awareness and
recognition of OTOP, and promote Thai value.

- International Collaboration
One Village One Product Summit : Uplift Grassroots Economy Sustainability,
the international conference concerning One Village One Product issues was
organized during September 16-19, 2004 at Chiang Mai University. The attendants were
included 600 representatives from15 countries and 2 economy zones (Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malawi, Mongolia, Myanmar, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Tunisia) consisting of private sector, government officials, and media. In the conference, participating countries presented their operating and progress and interchanged their viewpoints and experience regarding OTOP.

Also, the conference incorporated OTOP Showcase from each country, about 77 booths, presenting more than 400 products. The showcase visitors were more than 55,000 visitors.