One Tambon One Product - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

One Tambon One Product (OTOP) is a local entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which can be defined as "one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods". This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response...

stimulus program designed by Thai

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra

Thaksin Shinawatra

Thaksin Shinawatra is a Thai businessman and politician, who was Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006, when he was overthrown in a military coup....

during the 2001-2006 Thai Rak Thai

Thai Rak Thai

The Thai Rak Thai Party was a Thai political party that was officially banned on May 30, 2007, by the Constitutional Court of Thailand due to violations of electoral laws during the 2006 legislative elections. From 2001 to 2006, it was the ruling party under Prime Minister and its founder Thaksin...

government. The program aims to support the unique locally made and marketed products of each Thai tambon

Tambon

Tambon is a local government unit in Thailand. Below district and province , they form the third administrative subdivision level. As of the 2009 there are 7255 tambon, not including the 169 khwaeng of Bangkok, which are set at the same administrative level, thus every district contains 8-10 tambon...

(subdistrict). Drawing its inspiration from Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

's successful One Village One Product

One Village One Product movement

The is a Japanese regional development program. It began in Ōita Prefecture in 1979 when the then-governor Morihiko Hiramatsu advocated the program. Implementation started in 1980. Communities selectively produce goods with high added value...

(OVOP) program, Thailand's OTOP program encourages village communities to improve local product quality and marketing, selects one superior product from each tambon to receive formal branding as a "starred OTOP product", and provides a local and international stage for the promotion of these products. OTOP products cover a large array of local products, including handicrafts, cotton and silk garments, pottery, fashion accessories, household items, and foods. After a military junta overthrew the elected government of Thailand in 2006, the OTOP program was canceled and then revived and rebranded.

Management and organization

There are 36,000 OTOP groups across the country, with each having between 30 to 3,000 people per group. Sakda Siridechakul, president of Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai Province

Chiang Mai is the second-largest province of Thailand, located in the north of the country. Neighboring provinces are Chiang Rai, Lampang, Lamphun, Tak, and Mae Hong Son. In the north it borders Shan State of Burma...

's OTOP association noted that, "OTOP has helped incomes to be spread to many people in the villages. It has given people producing handicrafts to feel they can be part of the global economy."

After the coup

The military junta that overthrew the Thai Rak Thai government in 19 September 2006 made some changes to the OTOP program. It changed the program's name to Local and Community Products, but the OTOP brand was kept.

OTOP Product Champion (OPC)

This is one of the mechanisms to promote and support the development of Thai OTOP products. Apart from setting up OTOP communities and SMEs, a seminar called “Smart OTOP” has been offering for more than 26,600 participants with the aim to upgrade their skills and knowledge for the development of better products in the future. The number of participants has been increasing each year.
There is a rating system for all OTOP products and the highest score is five stars. Consumers can rest assure about the quality of products that has been awarded at this level.
Apart from OPC scheme, there is also an annual exhibition for OTOP products called “OTOP midyear”. In 2010, OTOP midyear 2010 ended successfully with consolidated turnover at 810 million THB.

Management and organization

After the coup

OTOP Product Champion (OPC)

See also

Further reading