• Background Realizing the need to expand the market and develop recognition for the Thai folk arts and crafts, the Bangsai Arts and Crafts Training Centre, which is attached to the SUPPORT Foundation of Queen Sirikit of Thailand asked for Their Majesties permission to establish the SUPPORT Arts and Crafts International Centre of Thailand in 1995 and has reported its construction progress to Their Majesties continually until its completion in 2004. Its mission is mainly to help provide ways and means to farming families all over the country to obtain supplementary income by producing elaborately made handicrafts and at the same time, to publicize the Thai cultural handiwork both locally and internationally. Such attempts are expected to be conducive to a secure national economic development in the future. His Majesty the King graciously issued the royal decree for the establishment of the Support Arts and Crafts International Centre of Thailand on October 31, 2003 and this was announced in the government gazette on November 1 of the same year. This newly constructed international centre will be managed as an autonomous public organization, a new type of juristic entity complying to the law on autonomous public organizations. The centre will be run under the supervision of the Ministry of Commerce. It will be called SACICT for short according to its initial and will be subsidized by the government as a nonprofit-making organization requiring joint co-operation from the government sector, the private sector (by the Council of the Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Industry of Thailand) and the Bangsai Arts and Crafts Training Centre of Queen Sirikit of Thailand. • Objective SACICT is established to celebrate Her Majesty the Queens 72nd birthday anniversary on August 12, 2004 to show gratitude to Her sincere effort in promoting Her peoples quality of life and to extend assistance towards the promotion and betterment of Thai folk arts and crafts for export. •Vision SACICT aims for excellence in the management, production and marketing of Thai handicrafts and also aims to be the main key in the development of the network of co-operation in production and marketing efforts so as to propel Thai arts and crafts products towards local and international recognition.
• Size and Location SACICT is located on the left bank of the Chao Phya River at Chang-Yai Subdistrict, Bangsai District, Ayutthaya Province. It is adjacent to the Bangsai Arts and Crafts Training Centre. Its area covers 45 rais 3 ngans, consisting of two main buildings which are the main four-storied building with an area of 34,340 square metres serving as the building for the display of arts and crafts products for export, and the smaller building housing the arts and crafts market measuring 7,000 square metres. The construction started in 1999 and finished in July 2004, costing 632.7 million baht for construction and another 259 million baht for decoration. The Ministry of Commerce dedicated the SUPPORT Arts and Crafts International Centre of Thailand to Her Majesty Queen Sirikit and organized a festive celebration entitled SACICT Honouring Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, The Great Queen of Thailand, on Her Seventy-second Birthday Anniversary from August 6-8 , 2004.
