Thailand Working To Inspire More R&d

[ThaiGoon]

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/business/0,3...62004185,00.htm

Thailand working to inspire more R&D

By Tony Waltham, Bangkok Post

Thursday , April 12 2007 10:36 AM

With 90 percent of space available to tenants at the Thailand Science Park (TSP) taken up by companies engaged in research and development (R&D) or related activities, the national research hub just north of Rangsit is now poised to embark on a much-delayed expansion as it plays catch-up with rival science parks that have sprung up elsewhere around the region.

Technology Management Centre (TMC) director Prof Chachanat Thebtaranonth, who oversees the TSP, conceded "we're very, very late with our science park" while explaining how its work is vital in order to stimulate the private sector here to engage in more R&D.

The TSP began operations in 2002, after its budget had been delayed three years by the economic collapse of 1997. Located between Thammasat University's Rangsit campus and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), the TSP houses the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) headquarters, a conference center and four national centers--the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec), the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (Nectec), the National Metal and Materials Technology Center (Mtec) and the National Nanotechnology Center (Nanotec). Altogether, a total staff of 2,000 work there, with 1,000 of these being researchers.

The original plan had been for a three-phased expansion, with Phase 2 being to provide space for tenants, but when a budget was sought for seven additional buildings for the tenants to occupy, the Thaksin government authorized only one to be built.

After that set-back, Prof Chachanat, who is also NSTDA vice president, said that last year the TMC had decided not to ask for the six remaining buildings and instead had put them together into one big building, which it won permission to build.

This will be 120,000 square meters in size--compared to the 12,000 to 15,000 sq m buildings on the campus at present--and it should be completed in three years' time, although since it would have many wings it should be able to partially open in two years, she said.

Chachanat noted that the TSP embraced innovation in all disciplines of science and catered to companies of all sizes that were both Thai and foreign-owned, with slightly less than 70 percent being Thai.

This contrasts with a trend in other countries now towards having themed science parks or ones that specialized in attracting only foreign investment.

She gave an example of how location and free trade agreements between Thailand and both China and India had benefited one tenant company that builds fuel cells and which had chosen the TSP over rival parks in China and India.

"Now we are placing our graduate students on scholarships between the universities and the NSTDA within the companies in the Science Park," she said, adding: "our mission is to see that there is technology transfer and commercialization of technology to our tenants as well." The bottom line was to stimulate private sector investment in R&D, she stressed.

She said that a shift to the "sufficiency economy" principle did not change anything for the TSP's activities. "I think it's just the way people take the word 'sufficiency'. Sufficiency doesn't mean low-tech or low-tech economy. It just means that if you go for a buffet, you can go for the most expensive food on the table, but for just as much as you can eat. Not the whole plateful, but leaving half of it on your plate afterwards."

New, rural science parks will likely be approved in the Northeast and in the South, with Khon Kaen and Suranaree University in the Northeast as contenders and Songkhla Nakarin in the South, where incubators have been set up. Prof Chachanat said she was confident that Khon Kaen and Songkhla would make the transition successfully.

ITAP has been a success story, but Prof Chachanat's account of her attempts to expand it serve as a sobering reminder about the frustrations that seem to be endemic to Thailand's bureaucracy.

She said: "We tried to expand ITAP, because we knew we had a good thing here, to expand it North, East, South and West." This had been during the Chuan Leekpai government which approved an 800 million baht (US$22.88 million) budget for this. But when they approached the Budget Bureau for the promised funds they were told that the bureau didn't have the money and after turning to the Ministry of Finance for a loan, they were told that they would have to go back to the Cabinet for that.

This took a whole year, Prof Chachanat recalled, but after the Chuan Cabinet had again approved the budget--this time even as a loan--there was a change of government and the incoming Thaksin government had said "we push nothing through from the old government, so you'll have to start again." Although they did this, it was never approved, she said.

If anything, the ITAP funding saga is a story of resolve and achievement in the face of setbacks that reflects the spirit of the leadership at the Thailand Science Park, whose much-delayed new mega-building, once-built, should also serve as a testimony to this as well as inspiring Thailand's private sector to invest more in research and development.