The Treasury Department promotes NaCGA to enhance the guarantee system, helping to issue risk certificates and guarantee retail loans. Mr. Pornchai Thiravet, spokesman for the Ministry of Finance, revealed that the establishment of the National Credit Guarantee Agency (NaCGA) aims to enhance the government's guarantee mechanism to help SMEs and small entrepreneurs access various sources of funds at reasonable costs. NaCGA is a juristic person, a government agency, but it is neither a government department nor a state enterprise, in order to provide guarantees that are fast and flexible, and less dependent on the government budget. The guarantee formats are diverse and the guarantee fee calculation mechanism is based on the risk level of each individual debtor. NaCGA aims to promote access to financial sources, reduce financial costs, and provide financial knowledge and advice to business operators with insufficient collateral. NaCGA is not limited to bank loan guarantees, but will cover other forms of acce ss to financial sources, such as guarantees of non-bank sources of funds, guarantees of SME bonds, etc. The guarantee fee will be based on the risk level of the borrower (Risk-Based Pricing), which will help reduce the financial costs of accessing financial sources for SME operators. NaCGA's credit guarantee focuses on the Direct Guarantee Approach and contract-based approach. Debtors will request NaCGA to guarantee their credit. Once guaranteed, debtors can choose a bank or non-bank that offers the most suitable interest rate and terms and conditions for their context, thus increasing SMEs' bargaining power in accessing sources of capital. In order to promote SMEs in a comprehensive and comprehensive manner, NaCGA will provide financial knowledge and advice to promote access to various sources of capital. It will also be a tool to drive 8 target industries under the Ignite Thailand vision. The policy committee, consisting of representatives from relevant government agencies, representatives from the private sector, and qualified persons, will oversee the organization's policies and directions to align with long-term economic trends and government policies. This will enable the government to effectively transmit policies to determine the direction of national development through this organization. It will also act as a mechanism to maintain the stability of the economic system. For sources of funds from government contributions, contributions from lenders, and fees from guarantors, NaCGA will provide SMEs and the general public with more options to access funding sources and promptly respond to liquidity needs, especially in times of high risk and uncertainty in the economic system, such as the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Pornchai added that the establishment of NaCGA led to a new ecosystem for the Thai business sector, which would benefit all sectors as follows: (1) The business sector and the public will have better access to credit or funding sources at a cost appropriate to their risk, helping to reduce reliance on informal debt. (2) Financial institutions and creditors will be able to reduce the cost of assessing debtor credit risk and reduce the burden of making provisions. (3) Government agencies have tools to take care of target groups by guaranteeing a variety of credits and have a more complete credit risk database. (4) The Thai economy has mechanisms to help create economic stability in the future as well as help push and support the country's target industries to be the cogs that drive the Thai economic system in the future. -515 Source: Thai News Agency