Thailand Wants To Be The Hub Of The Digital Industry In The Asia-Pacific

[george]

Digital-content scheme launched

BANGKOK: -- The Digital Media Asia 2010 (DMA 2010) scheme was launched last week with the aim of driving Thailand to become the hub of the digital-content industry in the Asia-Pacific region within the next three years.

Speaking at the launch, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the scheme was part of the government's creative-economy policy and a vital project to drive Thailand's digital content into overseas markets and to attract foreign investment to the country.

"Digital content is an important industry and the government is concern about it. As a flagship project, DMA 2010 is supported by a grant of Bt200 million from the government's Thai Khemkhaeng stimulus package. We hope that Thailand will become the hub of digital-content development in this region within the next three years," he said.

Thailand's digital-content industry is quite small when compared to the global market. But with the readiness of government support, the engagement of the private sector and the creativity of Thai people, it will not be too difficult to encourage Thailand to gain a greater market share in the global digital-content industry, Abhisit said.

Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa) president Jeerasak Pongpisanupichit said there were 10 main projects under the DMA 2010 scheme, in four main categories: animation, games, movies and music. These will be kicked off throughout this year.

Sipa's role is to develop the country's software technology and human resources for information-technology industries, enabling Thailand to become the regional hub of an Asia-wide creative economy in three to five years, he said.

Activities under DMA 2010 include Cyber Games Asia 2010, Toy and Comic Expo Asia 2010, Animation Youth Festival Asia, Asian Business Matching for a Creative Economy, Film Expo Asia, Asia Music Festival 2010, Asia Animation Awards; Asia Game Awards, Asia Music Awards, Venture-Capital Forum Asia, Animation and Computer Graphics ASIA Expo, Professional Game Training Asia and Professional Animation Training Asia.

-- The Nation 2010-02-18

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[chantorn]

Make me laugh. A country who spend 1 billion on GT200 wants to go hi-tech. Some scientific institutions director still insist of using GT200.

Good luck Thailand. Oh, I forgot to mention that Thailand is behind Singapore by 10 years, Malaysia by 5 years, and Myanmar by ..... The list goes on.

[landofthefree]

Make me laugh. A country who spend 1 billion on GT200 wants to go hi-tech. Some scientific institutions director still insist of using GT200.

Good luck Thailand. Oh, I forgot to mention that Thailand is behind Singapore by 10 years, Malaysia by 5 years, and Myanmar by ..... The list goes on.

Digital content is an important industry and the government is concern about it.

Another grammar mistake in the Nation:

'...............is concerned about it' not 'is concern about it'

This newspaper really is garbage.

[miksguevara]

thailand wants to be the hub of this,wants to be the the hub of that, what is this the new catchphrase? ...how about being the hub of getting the basics right and then moving on from there...lol

[boggzzy]

may be its time for a crackdown

[Phil Conners]

hub of crackdowns

[junglist]

how needs a joke book when you have thaivisa. another hub. hub hub hub

[anothertorres]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

hahahahhahahaahahaahhaahahhahhaha

yeah, the hub of the digital counterfeit industry. these idiots can't even figure out simple bandwidth!

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

Thailand. The Hub of Hubs.

But seriously. MORE BANDWIDTH would be needed to be a hub. Can you imagine Thailand with 50 MB DSL like Korea, Japan etc? Google is even rolling out 1 GB connections in the US.

Thailand has some serious catch up

[h90]

Make me laugh. A country who spend 1 billion on GT200 wants to go hi-tech. Some scientific institutions director still insist of using GT200.

Good luck Thailand. Oh, I forgot to mention that Thailand is behind Singapore by 10 years, Malaysia by 5 years, and Myanmar by ..... The list goes on.

I think half the harddisks worldwide are made in Thailand, a lot printer, mainboards etc etc

[givenall]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

hahahahhahahaahahaahhaahahhahhaha

yeah, the hub of the digital counterfeit industry. these idiots can't even figure out simple bandwidth!

I a sure they want to be the Digital hub, but they don’t want to invest or work hard to achieve it. As usual, just want it so if it happens then ok and if not who cares

[animatic]

So anyone here use ANY apps made in Thailand except CRACKS for outside apps?

And chances are those cracks were also made elsewhere.

There are some kids getting pretty hight tech lately,

but I wouldn't see a real innovative industry stringing up here.

[geriatrickid]

Make me laugh. A country who spend 1 billion on GT200 wants to go hi-tech. Some scientific institutions director still insist of using GT200.

Good luck Thailand. Oh, I forgot to mention that Thailand is behind Singapore by 10 years, Malaysia by 5 years, and Myanmar by ..... The list goes on.

I think half the harddisks worldwide are made in Thailand, a lot printer, mainboards etc etc

Not anymore. More importantly, the high end equipment is sourced elsewhere. Guess who is in the lead now? Go on, guess. China. accessories and parts aren't the profitable part of the product. It's the end product where the profit is made today.

Everyone assumes that the west has been asleep at the wheel. It hasn't.

Take a look at the largest import market for a hint;

During 2007, China supplied over two-thirds of computers exported to the U.S. The balance came from handful of other countries.

China … US$23.2 billion (76.7% of U.S. computer imports)

Mexico … $4.7 billion (15.6%)

Japan … $1.3 billion (4.2%)

Canada … $689.3 million (2.3%)

Germany … $215.7 million (0.7%)

United Kingdom … $171.4 million (0.6%).

Canada and China enjoyed the highest percentage sales increases for computers sold to the U.S.

Bet you didn't know that The US supplied 3 billion$ worth of computers to Canada and that Mexico is a big part of the equation. Transport costs and Just in Time manufacturing changed the playing field.

Know what the former eastbloc countries brought to the EU? all sorts of weird and wacky manufacturing capabilities, including computer components.

The days of thailand being a big player are coming to an end. China has the economy of scale and the critical mass. Have a look at who supplies the memory chips which are one of the most profitable components. I don't think Taiwan is going to give up its place as a market leader.

[Langsuan Man]

How can they even think of being a digital hub when your TV is still analog, your cell phone is still second generation, and don't even talk to us Thai Visa users about broadband that is still stuck in Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line hel_l

[Phil Conners]

Maybe the hub of delusional disorders

Edited February 18, 2010 by Phil Conners

[thaihome]

I think half the harddisks worldwide are made in Thailand, a lot printer, mainboards etc etc

Not anymore

. ...

The days of thailand being a big player are coming to an end. China has the economy of scale and the critical mass. Have a look at who supplies the memory chips which are one of the most profitable components. I don't think Taiwan is going to give up its place as a market leader.

No, the poster is correct. All five of the hard drive manufacturers have a presence in Thailand and it accounts for around half the world wide production. At one time, Singapore led, but Thailand as overtaken, mainly due to lower labor costs.

China is indeed used for final computer assembly, but many of the more technical parts are made elsewhere and sent to China.

With the restrictive foreign ownership laws in China on investment for export only, and the fact that QC cannot be controlled over a long period of time without extraordinary measures, many companies are reluctant to place the processes that require more skilled labor into China. Thailand has become and will continue to be a favorite. Your personal feelings and subjectivity won’t change that.

TH

[quiksilva]

Maybe the hub of delusional disorders

I completely misread that as "Maybe the hub of delusional soldiers"

[h90]

Make me laugh. A country who spend 1 billion on GT200 wants to go hi-tech. Some scientific institutions director still insist of using GT200.

Good luck Thailand. Oh, I forgot to mention that Thailand is behind Singapore by 10 years, Malaysia by 5 years, and Myanmar by ..... The list goes on.

I think half the harddisks worldwide are made in Thailand, a lot printer, mainboards etc etc

Not anymore. More importantly, the high end equipment is sourced elsewhere. Guess who is in the lead now? Go on, guess. China. accessories and parts aren't the profitable part of the product. It's the end product where the profit is made today.

Everyone assumes that the west has been asleep at the wheel. It hasn't.

Take a look at the largest import market for a hint;

During 2007, China supplied over two-thirds of computers exported to the U.S. The balance came from handful of other countries.

China … US$23.2 billion (76.7% of U.S. computer imports)

Mexico … $4.7 billion (15.6%)

Japan … $1.3 billion (4.2%)

Canada … $689.3 million (2.3%)

Germany … $215.7 million (0.7%)

United Kingdom … $171.4 million (0.6%).

Canada and China enjoyed the highest percentage sales increases for computers sold to the U.S.

Bet you didn't know that The US supplied 3 billion$ worth of computers to Canada and that Mexico is a big part of the equation. Transport costs and Just in Time manufacturing changed the playing field.

Know what the former eastbloc countries brought to the EU? all sorts of weird and wacky manufacturing capabilities, including computer components.

The days of thailand being a big player are coming to an end. China has the economy of scale and the critical mass. Have a look at who supplies the memory chips which are one of the most profitable components. I don't think Taiwan is going to give up its place as a market leader.

I just met a guy from Western Digital and he told me almost all Laptop HD worldwide, they produce in Thailand. Of course Thailand is small in compare with China but for sure Thailand can have a small share of it.

The word "hub" is of course wrong. It should more say, that Thailand can also have some electronic industry.

[jonclark]

HOW, HOW HOW is Thailand going to become the digital hub. To become the center of something implies, creativity, focus, knowledge, research and experience, all things which are sadly lacking digitally wise in Thailand.

I think digital manufacturing hub would be a better description. Thailand will cheaply produce the component parts for export markets, can't see any digital revolutions sweeping over SE Asia as a result of this HUB.

[tso310]

The offical start of the Hub season.

[Crossy]

Hubs are old technology now, you should be replacing hubs with switches

[ding]

Thailand should focus on this. It wont be China. There was a great article in the Atlantic Monthly, by Falows I think, that made the case that China is incapable of being an engine of innovation like the US. That China's univrsities churn out robots, not inventors and innovators, from its university system. Thailand is inherently more open than China, and there are studious Thais. But are there enough?

Edited February 18, 2010 by ding

[bkkjames]

to quote the guy in the article "Digital content is an important industry and the government is concern about it."

Digital Content in Thai only? as ASPAC hub?

I have seen the subtitles on movies here - suggest they lower the bar first.

Aim for Hub of the Digital Industry in Thailand.

[ScienceGuy]

So they're going to produce movies and video games?

I can't wait to play "Afatahr" based on the movie Avatar. "All ur bases are belongs to us"

I can't wait to see movies with people speaking English that isn't understandable

I can't wait to hear their rendition of children's songs like "Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wondering what are you"

[junglist]

Maybe the hub of delusional disorders

you nailed it!!!

[madmitch]

Have any of Thailand's many proposed hubs this century actually come to fruition?

Is there anyone out there who thinks this one will?

[Crushdepth]

Thailand has three hubs that actually work: Tourism, naughty tourism and the airport. None of these were the result of government planning.

Edit: Apparently it was also remarked at this conference that Thailand should be removed from the intellectual property watchlist because 'the government had obviously cracked down on piracy'

Edited February 18, 2010 by Crushdepth

[ManilaLover]

The clowns just get very exited from the word 'hub'.

[ManilaLover]

Maybe the hub of delusional disorders

[Bagwan]

Thailand is of use only as a provider of cheap assembly workers. Thailand has no design experience in most high tech applications and my guess is that the design of a logic board comprising several platters would be well beyond the country's capability as would designing and building the robots to churn out the boards in their millions. Pattaya City cannot even get the traffic lights to work consistently and any heavy rainstorm means that the lights will go out shortly afterwards so that IT excellence would appear to be pie in the sky (accompanied by a few pigs!). As for software designers and engineers Japan struggled for years and Microsoft has always fallen short of an acceptable standard.

Much the same could be said about the assembly of cars and trucks in Thailand. Nothing can gainsay that they are of Japanese or American derivation.

It must be said that there have always been some talented Thai youngsters and mayhaps they will continue to come through, but my guess is that they will. at the first opportunity. hightail it to the US or another developed country, where they can earn big bucks and have access to suitable research facilities. If Thailand wants a software industry they will have to start with what passes for the education system here. Before I retired part of my remit in working for major computer manufacturer was the trainee software engineer and trainee hardware engineer programmes. About 2% of those who made written application were called for interview and of them, about the same percentage were offered positions. If the UK had problems of recruiting people of the required calibre then God only knows how high the mountain that Thailand must climb would be.

Sorry Mark, but I view this as yet another Quixotic Thai pipe dream. Like all other hubs, the wheels will fall off long before the vehicle becomes airborne.