"Chankit," the new director of the Village Fund, revealed his vision to develop a hundred-billion-baht fund into the world's largest grassroots startup fund,
Chankit Triratnanon He unveiled a strategic plan to transform the Village Fund Office (VFO) from 2026 to 2029 into a fully-fledged “community financial institution,” aiming to become a Data-Driven Organization that tackles non-performing loans and closes corruption loopholes using AI and Big Data. The plan includes partnering with the education sector to establish a “Community Business School” to strengthen micro businesses nationwide. The reform model focuses on creating a “hundred-billion-baht fund” as a proactive fund to evolve into the world’s largest grassroots Venture Capital (VC) startup fund. It also aims to build an ecosystem of community business schools for sustainable growth, pushing forward regulations to operate the Village Fund as a true Micro Finance institution to solve informal debt problems and promote financial literacy (“know how to borrow, know how to save”).
Mr. Chankit Triratnanon, the new director of the National Village and Urban Community Fund Office (VFO), spoke about his vision, management roadmap, and new challenges for the next four years, emphasizing the necessity of organizational transformation. He wants the more than 70,000 village and urban community funds nationwide to overcome old limitations and become key mechanisms driving sustainable grassroots economic development. He analyzed the major challenges from vulnerability to stability and shared that
“Based on past evaluations, although the Village Fund has improved access to capital, it still faces four major challenges: 1) fund management and rehabilitation issues; 2) transparency and auditing systems; 3) lack of digital skills and new leadership successors; and 4) pending disbursement and project approvals, such as the SML project. Therefore, I propose the vision to ‘upgrade the Village Fund into a transparent, strong, and self-reliant community financial institution.’ After assuming office, I have an action plan based on four immediate strategic pillars:
1. Develop the fund—which currently manages hundreds of billions of baht—into a community financial institution and the world’s largest grassroots startup fund through Digital Transformation powered by technology. The key is to transform the VFO into a data-driven organization by rapidly establishing digital infrastructure to maximize fund management efficiency in the digital era.
2. Village Fund Business School (VBS) to develop Community Entrepreneurs 4.0, upgrading from mere loan funds into “Business Support Units” through community business school projects. These will equip entrepreneurs with essential modern skills such as digital marketing, supply chain management, and upgrading standards of processed agricultural products to add value to community products.
3. Synergy by connecting partners: the VFO will act as a “connector” between communities, government, and private sectors to expand cooperation in areas like marketing and research and development.
4. Next Gen Leadership to address the aging community challenge by creating an ecosystem that draws young people back to their hometowns through various funds and projects. This supports youth participation as members, fund management committee members, and VFO staff to transfer knowledge across generations (Mentor-Mentee), as well as establishing Next Gen Pilot Villages to identify and nurture startups or young entrepreneurs in every district.
“Ultimately, the highest goal of the National Village and Urban Community Fund today is to reduce inequality through self-reliance. This four-year strategy is not just about system improvements but about building people and institutions truly owned by the public, with international-level transparency and competitive business capabilities, so that the Village Fund becomes a stable foundation for Thailand’s sustainable economic system,” Mr. Chankit emphasized.
Read more news " Government policy " Additional