Bangkok promotes a sustainable model to regulate street vendors, providing permanent trading spaces and raising Thai street food to new standards with technology that ensures strict transparency.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, in collaboration with LINE MAN Wongnai, officially launched Hawker Center Suan Lumphini in a soft opening format as a model space to elevate Thai street food to international standards, focusing on cleanliness, hygiene, and vendor stability, while fully integrating restaurant management technology for support.
Governor Chadchart Sittipunt stated that this project represents new urban economic infrastructure designed to align with modern lifestyles. Bangkok invested in all public utilities, from hygienic cooking zones to sewage treatment and grease traps.
Governor Chadchart also noted that besides building tourist confidence, the project helps vendors achieve greater stability. Bangkok enforces a strict policy prohibiting the transfer or resale of trading rights to prevent excessive profit-taking, protecting consumers from increased costs. Among the center’s eateries, the governor especially recommends the fried dough sticks and traditional-style rice porridge shops in the morning.
Mr. Weeraphong Go, Managing Director of On-Demand Services, LINE MAN Wongnai, explained that the private sector’s main role is to introduce digital tools to empower small vendors through Digitalize Thailand. Each vendor is equipped with a LINE Pay QR Box that provides immediate audible payment notifications, addressing a common vendor concern about fraudulent slips.
He added that a strict vendor management system requires listed vendors to trade personally. They plan to implement facial recognition technology for check-in to prevent unauthorized vendor substitutions or lease transfers. This partnership has no fixed end date and aims to expand to other promising locations in Bangkok.
Hawker Center Suan Lumphini gathers over 100 well-known local vendors, including Suan Lumphini Gate 8 Pork Blood Soup, Kolan Braised Pork Rice, and Chicken Noodle Soup shops, with operating hours divided into two sessions: morning (05:00–16:00) and evening (16:00–24:00).
This model has potential to extend to other Bangkok areas or special projects in provinces, similar to LINE MAN Wongnai’s successful mobile kitchen project that aided small vendors affected by floods in Hat Yai, aiming to sustainably secure trade and livelihoods for small entrepreneurs nationwide.