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Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) are increasingly seen as potential creators of new employment opportunities and additional incomes contributing to improved social and economic well-being, as well as to the alleviation of poverty. Together with the financial and economic crisis of 1997, this has prompted the Royal Thai Government (RTG) to review its policy for promoting and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand. In this context the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has engaged the ILO in a project to provide Support Services for Policy and Programme Development (SPPD) in the field of Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) Development in Thailand, in order to provide information and recommendations to the policy formulation of the Royal Thai Government (RTG), as well as to the programme development procedures of international organizations and the donor community.

The SPPD project includes a series of technical inputs prepared by the ILO. They are:

· Working Paper 1: Review of BDS assistance and activities of support agencies for MSE development;

· Working Paper 2: Review of international best practices in business development services (BDS) appropriate to MSE development in Thailand;

· Working Paper 3: Review of policy, legal and regulatory environment for MSE development;

· Working Paper 4: Review of financial support services for MSE development;

· Working Paper 5: Review of problems and needs of MSE operators as experienced at the local level in selected urban areas.

· Working Paper 6: Although not originally planned, a substantial amount of information was gathered in areas including the definitions of MSEs, and their contribution to employment and the national economy. Consequently, this information was put together as working paper 6.

This report, working paper 5 in the series, consists of a review of problems and needs of a number of Thai urban-based MSEs. It is based upon the result of a survey of MSEs made in Bangkok and urban Phetchaburi (a province 120 km. south-west of Bangkok), and carried out during April - June, 1999. Considering the vast experience of the ILO in working with MSEs in developing countries, together with a number of studies previously undertaken by agencies in Thailand, the survey was designed to confirm or verify former knowledge of the MSEs. Hence only a small sample of 100 enterprises was aimed for in the survey, although in effect 104 enterprises were actually surveyed.