Ibm To Help Thailand Develop It Expertise

[george]

IBM to help Thailand develop IT expertise

BANGKOK: -- IBM, a leading American information technology firm, will help Thailand train local IT experts for Thailand to become a major international computer outsourcing centre, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula.

IBM executive vice president Nicholas Donofrio led a group of IBM executives to meet the Deputy Prime Minister at Government House yesterday.

Pridiyathorn told reporters afterwards that the IBM executives signed agreements on education support and technical service focusing on IT. Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, a semi-autonomous institute established within Thammasat University, would be the centre of cooperation with eight universities to develop curriculum for Thai students, he said.

"The world is becoming IT- and technology-oriented.

Thailand must prepare to face the new challenge by learning to manage and provide IT services," he said.

Meanwhile, Pridiyathorn said, the National Science and Technology Development Board (NSTDA), Software Park and Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology will cooperate with IBM to set up an IT research centre.

Thai students will be sent to learn IT with IBM under an exchange programme.

At the same time, IBM would assign experts to Thailand to help conduct research at the centre.

With the cooperation, Pridiyathorn said he hoped Thailand could develop human resources in the IT field.

"In the near future, Thailand can be an IT oursourcing centre just like India and Vietnam", he added.

--Agencies 2007-02-03

[astral]

IMHE Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt has always been IBM's approach

Do we really need it here??

[Cyberstar]

... better than Thai governmental approach left alone.

Edited February 4, 2007 by Cyberstar

[ColPyat]

IBM to help Thailand develop IT expertise

BANGKOK: -- IBM, a leading American information technology firm, will help Thailand train local IT experts for Thailand to become a major international computer outsourcing centre, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula.

Oh how inventive...

Another one of Thaksin's ideas of making Thailand an IT hub, now i boldly guess it will rebranded as part of 'sufficiency economy'...

And ironically, just at the time when India is beginning to upgrade it's already more than impressive outsourcing industry into developing software as well. I wonder anyhow how Thailand is ever going to be able to compete in outsourcing as compared to India, where English is already lingua franca, while in Thailand English language capabilities are not exactly up to par yet.

Oh my...

[Ch4co]

I used to work at IBM. How minds have taken a step back there.

Where are they going to find the staff they need? Certainly not in Thailand, the school students are too busy sleeping in class. And the University students busy plagerising their work.

If they are thinking that they can do as India has, I think they are missing one main difference in the two countries. Indians are generally hard working, Thais are bone idle.

[zhudi]

IBM to help Thailand develop IT expertise

BANGKOK: -- IBM, a leading American information technology firm, will help Thailand train local IT experts for Thailand to become a major international computer outsourcing centre, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula.

Oh how inventive...

Another one of Thaksin's ideas of making Thailand an IT hub, now i boldly guess it will rebranded as part of 'sufficiency economy'...

And ironically, just at the time when India is beginning to upgrade it's already more than impressive outsourcing industry into developing software as well. I wonder anyhow how Thailand is ever going to be able to compete in outsourcing as compared to India, where English is already lingua franca, while in Thailand English language capabilities are not exactly up to par yet.

Oh my...

sounds like you dont like the idea?? would you feel better if there was less progress made here? Obviously if you cant be the best, whats the point in trying ehi?

[ColPyat]

sounds like you dont like the idea?? would you feel better if there was less progress made here? Obviously if you cant be the best, whats the point in trying ehi?

It's a rehashed idea from Thaksin that won't work.

Thailand would be better off by decentralising it's manufacturing industries, and making themselves more attractive for investors. But that would mean to move away from the present rabid nationalism.

Just looking at India's success without understanding why is not progress - it's a brainfart.

[Prakanong]

sounds like you dont like the idea?? would you feel better if there was less progress made here? Obviously if you cant be the best, whats the point in trying ehi?

It's a rehashed idea from Thaksin that won't work.

Thailand would be better off by decentralising it's manufacturing industries, and making themselves more attractive for investors. But that would mean to move away from the present rabid nationalism.

Just looking at India's success without understanding why is not progress - it's a brainfart.

This idea has been floated for ages.

A guy at the Deparment of Trade And Industry in the UK contacted me ages ago with info about turning Phuket into the IT hub with connections linking in to the info pipe that bypasses Thailand down that way on the way to Singapore from India.

I think one of the CP guys who is and anglophile had something to do with it.

I am just off the phone with our offshore centre in Bangalore and will be visiting them and WIPRO there next month - I will mention the dea of Thailand competing to them for a laugh!

[dogleg]

sounds like you dont like the idea?? would you feel better if there was less progress made here? Obviously if you cant be the best, whats the point in trying ehi?

It's a rehashed idea from Thaksin that won't work.

Thailand would be better off by decentralising it's manufacturing industries, and making themselves more attractive for investors. But that would mean to move away from the present rabid nationalism.

Just looking at India's success without understanding why is not progress - it's a brainfart.

This idea has been floated for ages.

A guy at the Deparment of Trade And Industry in the UK contacted me ages ago with info about turning Phuket into the IT hub with connections linking in to the info pipe that bypasses Thailand down that way on the way to Singapore from India.

I think one of the CP guys who is and anglophile had something to do with it.

I am just off the phone with our offshore centre in Bangalore and will be visiting them and WIPRO there next month - I will mention the dea of Thailand competing to them for a laugh!

Absolutely right! I have given up the idea of expanding an enterprise, working here for demanding US and UK customers. Trying to put the local "qualified" candidates in front of those customers would be just embarrasing.

The basics in general education, attitiude, and language skills just dont seem to be available.

Not to mention the infratructure!

Sad to say it tho.

[manjara]

I'm sure IBM is desperate to do whatever it can to raise the competency of the people it recruits in Thailand.

If the Universities are not providing sufficiently good education, then IBM will attempt to get involved so that it can cherry pick the best.

I don't see this turning Thailand into a centre for Outsourcing, as one of the first prerequisites is 'speak the language of the people you are outsourcing to'.

Thailand doesn't have the mentality for it.

[Wolfie]

I work in IT management and i can confirm that finding good quality Thai IT staff is a nightmare, at best. In saying that we haven't had much luck with the Indian IT staff we have hired either...

Definitely one of those "Better to do it yourself" situations. Good luck to them, but i have a feeling they ain't going to get much further than hollow words and wishful thinking... of course i could be wrong

[Prakanong]

sounds like you dont like the idea?? would you feel better if there was less progress made here? Obviously if you cant be the best, whats the point in trying ehi?

It's a rehashed idea from Thaksin that won't work.

Thailand would be better off by decentralising it's manufacturing industries, and making themselves more attractive for investors. But that would mean to move away from the present rabid nationalism.

Just looking at India's success without understanding why is not progress - it's a brainfart.

This idea has been floated for ages.

A guy at the Deparment of Trade And Industry in the UK contacted me ages ago with info about turning Phuket into the IT hub with connections linking in to the info pipe that bypasses Thailand down that way on the way to Singapore from India.

I think one of the CP guys who is and anglophile had something to do with it.

I am just off the phone with our offshore centre in Bangalore and will be visiting them and WIPRO there next month - I will mention the dea of Thailand competing to them for a laugh!

Absolutely right! I have given up the idea of expanding an enterprise, working here for demanding US and UK customers. Trying to put the local "qualified" candidates in front of those customers would be just embarrasing.

The basics in general education, attitiude, and language skills just dont seem to be available.

Not to mention the infratructure!

Sad to say it tho.

Like you I am sad to say it also.

The Indians on the other hand are racing ahead.

We at work are involved in a charity and we pay all our own expenses so all monies raised go to the cause and is not used up by us.

I have recently been given the website to take care of (I know nothing about this as my IT expertise is in a specilaist area but what the heck -it says It in his job description so i get this bit to do)

I am moving it from a static site to a CMS and wil be outsourcing some of the work - I bet its an Indian guy gets th job when I put it up on elancer or wherever!

[Prakanong]

I work in IT management and i can confirm that finding good quality Thai IT staff is a nightmare, at best. In saying that we haven't had much luck with the Indian IT staff we have hired either...

Definitely one of those "Better to do it yourself" situations. Good luck to them, but i have a feeling they ain't going to get much further than hollow words and wishful thinking... of course i could be wrong

I am in the same game as you - The Indians I have come across have been very good but there is a lot of competition in Bangalore for the best.

I did overhear some guys fro another company talking about their Singapore staff. I thought it was amusing that they were talking about 1 guy who has not returned to the office after they checked the Cisco qualification number he gave them - it was from some guy in the USA

[chownah]

Does anyone here have any experience in a software product that was totally Thai or Indian conceived and constructed?

[Plus]

Does Nectec's online Thai-English translator count?

It's called Parsit and it can be found here:

http://www.suparsit.com/index1.php

[singa-traz]

Does anyone here have any experience in a software product that was totally Thai or Indian conceived and constructed?

If the software runs on Windows platform, from a well known American company, does this count as Totally Thai?

Should also all the dlls and libraries have been developed by a Thai for this Totally Thai Label?

There should be such software products developed by those companies here (at least a few):

http://www.atsi.or.th/front/index.cfm

What's the next question? Is there a Thai programming language?

[chownah]

Does Nectec's online Thai-English translator count?

It's called Parsit and it can be found here:

http://www.suparsit.com/index1.php

I don't know. Does it count? Was it Thai conceived and constructed? I have no idea.

Do you have experience with it?.....have you used it?...did you help develop it or do you have information about how it was developed? Was the program structure and architecture designed by Thais or was this predominently done by foreigners and mostly the coding was done by Thais? It seems like there are alot of foreign programmers here in Thailand and I'm wondering if the state of the art here is that design work is done by mostly foreign expertise and the coding is done by locals....etc.

This thread is about Thailand wanting some foreign experts to come into Thailand and train people.....is this because there aren't any experts in Thailand so expertise has to be imported? I'm trying to get a grip on the reality of what this news topic means since the news release itself seems to be avoiding the issue...IMHO.

Chownah

[chownah]

Does anyone here have any experience in a software product that was totally Thai or Indian conceived and constructed?

If the software runs on Windows platform, from a well known American company, does this count as Totally Thai?

Should also all the dlls and libraries have been developed by a Thai for this Totally Thai Label?

There should be such software products developed by those companies here (at least a few):

http://www.atsi.or.th/front/index.cfm

What's the next question? Is there a Thai programming language?

You have fleshed out my initial question by posing a lot of questions that all help to elucidate various aspects. They are all pertinent to one degree or another....now...can you answer them?....or can someone else? I'm especially interested in whether there have been any programming languages developed by Thais as this would indicate a certain level of sophistication of the industry...depending of course on the sophistication and usefulness of the language...its not difficult to create some generic clumsy useless language.

Chownah

[Plus]

Does Nectec's online Thai-English translator count?

It's called Parsit and it can be found here:

http://www.suparsit.com/index1.php

I don't know. Does it count? Was it Thai conceived and constructed? I have no idea.

Do you have experience with it?.....have you used it?...did you help develop it or do you have information about how it was developed? Was the program structure and architecture designed by Thais or was this predominently done by foreigners and mostly the coding was done by Thais? It seems like there are alot of foreign programmers here in Thailand and I'm wondering if the state of the art here is that design work is done by mostly foreign expertise and the coding is done by locals....etc.

This thread is about Thailand wanting some foreign experts to come into Thailand and train people.....is this because there aren't any experts in Thailand so expertise has to be imported? I'm trying to get a grip on the reality of what this news topic means since the news release itself seems to be avoiding the issue...IMHO.

Chownah

Have YOU tried to use it. It doesn't work AT ALL. Answers your first question. I don't really care if there were any foreigners employed in that project. It has THAI written all over it.

[OlRedEyes]

I may be totally wrong, but I don't think IBM is under any illusion as to the prospects of Thailand becoming a notable IT player. I'm sure they know all about the last try, and the general education and motivation level here.

So I ask myself, why are they making these noises to the Thai govt? Maybe they're just playing the local game, to gain something they want...

[OlRedEyes]

IBM to help Thailand develop IT expertise

Pridiyathorn told reporters afterwards .....

"The world is becoming IT- and technology-oriented.

Sounds like something someone would have said 25 years ago

[hammered]

Ignoring the last sentence of the article that has attracted so many sarcastic comments, the article does seem to highlight an offer of some educational and research opportunities for Thai people studying in the IT field. As such surely the IBM-Thailand link should be praised.

[OlRedEyes]

Ignoring the last sentence of the article that has attracted so many sarcastic comments, the article does seem to highlight an offer of some educational and research opportunities for Thai people studying in the IT field. As such surely the IBM-Thailand link should be praised.

Pouring a glass of water into the sands of the Sahara....

[Prakanong]

IBM to help Thailand develop IT expertise

Pridiyathorn told reporters afterwards .....

"The world is becoming IT- and technology-oriented.

Sounds like something someone would have said 25 years ago

LOL - you are so right!

Talk about missing the boat.

As for Thai and Indian software I have seen bespoke systems as well as tailored packages developed in both.

There are no Thai's companies the likes of WIPRO and Infosys though

[hammered]

Ignoring the last sentence of the article that has attracted so many sarcastic comments, the article does seem to highlight an offer of some educational and research opportunities for Thai people studying in the IT field. As such surely the IBM-Thailand link should be praised.

Pouring a glass of water into the sands of the Sahara....

But at least it is something. Would we rather sit around and criticise than acknowledge an opportunity for some. Maybe things could be done better. That is another debate and maybe one we should have, but for westerners to just sit and criticize while offering nothing positive doesnt sit well with me. Personally I would rather see educational opportunites for Thai people improve.

[Wolfie]

But at least it is something. Would we rather sit around and criticise than acknowledge an opportunity for some. Maybe things could be done better. That is another debate and maybe one we should have, but for westerners to just sit and criticize while offering nothing positive doesnt sit well with me. Personally I would rather see educational opportunites for Thai people improve.

I agree, education is sorely needed. Part of my job is to help the thais understand the concepts, design and to write good code. Its a frustrating job sometimes but there are one or two stars in my staff

[chownah]

I guess I'm getting the impression that to create a good software product in Thailnad requires that the program be designed by foreigners (mostly) and that Thai coders probably will need a foreign mentor (teacher) to get them up to speed in the use of modern languages and techniques....I'm not sure if my assessment is correct so if anyone has more input in this area please post.

If my assessment is at least reasonable then what do people think that IBM will be teaching?....do you think they will be teaching or do you think they will be designing the curriculum?....or what?

People have pondered what IBM will get out of this....my guess is that they will get a "presence" in Thailand which will enable them to be first on the scene with inside connections in place if/when some opportunity opens up in the future....and at a (posibbly) bargain price....sending a few teachers here...maybe even only part time ones perhaps should give the Thai authorities something to brag about and proved a nice reward position (short duration vacation postings) for their own people.

Chownah

[Prakanong]

"People have pondered what IBM will get out of this....my guess is that they will get a "presence" in Thailand which will enable them to be first on the scene with inside connections in place if/when some opportunity opens up in the future....and at a (posibbly) bargain price....sending a few teachers here...maybe even only part time ones perhaps should give the Thai authorities something to brag about and proved a nice reward position (short duration vacation postings) for their own people."

Being leader in the local market with the best talent that you have cherry picked and trained yourself will give you competative in that local market - its not to be sniffed at.

I think its the hyperbole about Thailand being the new "India" in terms of technical services that detracts from what is in fact a good idea.

I may be wrong abouth this bit its what I was told by an Indian guy involved in the IT industry told me Sunday it was when IBM pulled out of India it gave WIPRO the chance to recruit their staff and set them on their way as a force in ofshoring and outsourcing - previously WIPRO ws involved with cooking oil and left that business just like nokia left the paper mill business.

[OlRedEyes]

Ignoring the last sentence of the article that has attracted so many sarcastic comments, the article does seem to highlight an offer of some educational and research opportunities for Thai people studying in the IT field. As such surely the IBM-Thailand link should be praised.

Pouring a glass of water into the sands of the Sahara....

But at least it is something. Would we rather sit around and criticise than acknowledge an opportunity for some. Maybe things could be done better. That is another debate and maybe one we should have, but for westerners to just sit and criticize while offering nothing positive doesnt sit well with me. Personally I would rather see educational opportunites for Thai people improve.

But then when them westerners try to help by imparting knowledge, skills etc. they are not exactly welcomed are they. We know it all already, I think, is the general attitude.

Most of us wish to see Thailand succeed. But we may not help, teach, criticise, comment or fart without a workpermit. We are guests. I forget.

[Plus]

Someone HAS TO train Thais, what's the problem with IBM? Better than nothing.

IT world is too big for India to have it all to itself, there are always niche markets that come and go - java based games for mobile phones, for example. Every phone maker put them in, what if half of the games were supplied by Thais? It was nothing fancy, really.