Introduction In 2001, the government of Thailand launched the Thailand Village and Urban Revolving Fund(TVF) program. The TVF program provides a million baht (about $ 22 500) to every village andurban community in Thailand as working capital for locally-run rotating credit associations.②Theobjective is to stimulate the rural economy by targeting new activities such as processing andpackaging that are not traditionally financed under the existing financial arrangements. Thailand has almost 74 000 villages and over 4 500 urban (including military) communities, sothe total injection of capital into the economy envisaged by the TVF proposal amounted to 78 billionbaht, equivalent to about $1.75 billion. The program was put into place rapidly. By the end ofMay 2005 the TVF committees had lent a total of 9.59 billion baht ( $ 6.9 billion at an exchange rateof Baht 37. 6/$ ) to 17. 8 million borrowers (some of whom borrowed more than once). Thisrepresents an average loan of $ 387. The total repayment of principal amounted to 168 billion baht,leaving outstanding principal of 91 billion baht. Rarely, if ever, has an effort been made to direct somuch money so quickly into locally-run micro-credit.
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