Thai govt to spend big on digital economy boast

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DIGITAL ECONOMY
Govt to spend big on digital economy boast
Jirapan Boonnoon
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- THE INFORMATION and Communication Technology Ministry has said it will spend Bt3.7 billion next year on driving flagship projects of the digital economy.

Manoo Ordeedolchest, a member of the government's Digital Economy Committee, said that the money left over from the one-tablet-per-child project.

Manoo said that the flagship projects covered five themes - hard infrastructure, soft infrastructure, service infrastructure, promotions and innovation, and the digital society and knowledge.

He said that under the promotions and innovation flagships, a budget of around Bt600 million had been allocated. The ministry would conduct three flagship projects including developing a global trade item number (GTIN).

It would also support tech startups and develop village commerce nationwide.

He said that the ministry would work with the Federation of Thai Industries to develop a business framework that would make it easier to provider local products to the global market.

Manoo said that the FTI would develop and provide a GTIN of international standard that would be an identifier for trade items, product information and product codes. It could be used to look up product information on a database.

The GTIN would apply to manufacturing, retail, lifestyle, medicine and herbal products. As a result, customers would be able to track products.

He said that the GTIN would drive business both locally and international as it would be easier to provide products via e-commerce and drive small and medium-sized businesses via e-commerce.

The ministry aims to support new tech entrepreneurs and startups by developing human resources.

Manoo said that it would work with the private sector and universities to develop innovation and IT skills to support students so they could turn their ideas into innovative products.

"We try to provide idea-creation skills and innovative skill to support tech startups and real sector," he said.

"The ministry expects to create more than 10,000 IT-skilled employees in the next five year and create more than 40,000 innovative and ideas-driven employees in the marketplace within 10 years to support demand."

He said that the ministry would help tech entrepreneurs accelerate getting their products to market.

He said that the village commerce concept involved the ministry transforming the more than 1,900 ICT community centres nationwide that have been used for providing ICT literacy and knowledge to people.

"The centres would help drive local economies via the online channel.

He said that the approach would help people develop their communities by enabling them to better tap markets and make more money through e-commerce.

The village commerce concept would also result in more products under the One Tambon One Product scheme and would be applied to small and medium-sized enterprises in the next step.

He added that the ministry would work with partners to provide community tourism that would result in tourists getting useful information at the ICT community centres.

"We hope that ICT will create opportunities for people in communities so that they can increase their incomes and develop quality products …. the digital economy flagships will improve the quality of life for people as a whole.

"And businesses in the next step will be able to communicate together via the online channel, which will help reduce investment costs and improve the efficiency of business."

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Govt-to-spend-big-on-digital-economy-boast-30274465.html


-- The Nation 2015-12-08

[digibum]

Hate to rain on their parade but, really, if Thailand wants to even catch up with the rest of the world, they should be courting outside companies to come to Thailand and innovate here.

You're just not going to get the next Facebook or Google coming out of Thailand. It's not going to happen.

Right now, the trend in Thailand (as well as other SEA countries) is to rapidly copy business models proving successful in the rest of the world in the hopes that by the time those companies get to Thailand that it'll be cheaper to just buy them out than it would be to start from scratch. And even then, most of those companies are run by farangs.

The government has it backwards. You don't dump a bunch of cash on people and suddenly get innovation. You have innovation and you nurture it properly so it grows.

[Thian]

Then they should start with good webshops, in Europe we have perfect webshops these days and their products are much cheaper then in the Thai malls.

But Thailand is far behind the rest of the world, they even don't have returntickets for the skytrain In Singapore they have a perfect top-up system for public transport, just copy that.

[LarryBird]

It's so cute when government says it's going to help an economy like this.

[trainman34014]

Headline should read ''Government to TALK BIG on digital economy boast ''.

[tomacht8]

I feel that the Thai Internet is as slow as ever.

[lovelomsak]

Probably nothing will change. Just a few people will steal the money and nothing will happen,except a few new murcedes will be bought and a few new villas in Phuket and mia nois will live better.

[oneday]

In reality there is just one BIG project on their minds...the Single Gateway project.

[Redline]

With no intellectual property protection, full government access to all information. Yikes! Details details let's see the details

[Redline]

Hate to rain on their parade but, really, if Thailand wants to even catch up with the rest of the world, they should be courting outside companies to come to Thailand and innovate here.

You're just not going to get the next Facebook or Google coming out of Thailand. It's not going to happen.

Right now, the trend in Thailand (as well as other SEA countries) is to rapidly copy business models proving successful in the rest of the world in the hopes that by the time those companies get to Thailand that it'll be cheaper to just buy them out than it would be to start from scratch. And even then, most of those companies are run by farangs.

The government has it backwards. You don't dump a bunch of cash on people and suddenly get innovation. You have innovation and you nurture it properly so it grows.

Ummm, like Singapore? One of the most successful experiments for tech innovation!

[facthailand]

MICT can only advance the digital economy once they implement a single int'l gateway so the Internet is safe for everyone. Just look how well the One Tablet-One Child initiative worked--they've even got money left over!

[impulse]

Seems everyone missed it.

They're spending money on a boast.

Not on actually improving the service. For that, they'd have to spend money on a boost.

3.7 Billion for a boast. That's going to be one heck of an ad campaign...

(Mods, feel free to delete this post if you fix the headline- pretty please...)

[phoenixdoglover]

I agree with the comment regarding innovation and how to foster it.

The approaches described above are so "home grown" and slow (5 to 10 years to get better skilled people into the ICT market) The innovation of the rest of the world will outpace these efforts by Thailand.

Why not leverage the innovation of the rest of the world? Thailand has announced a bunch of Special Economic Zones at border points, all directed toward trade of physical goods. But their plans to promote ICT business are tepid. For example, in October, CAT announced a three phase plan.

From The Nation

The first phase is to support digital start-ups and attract digital-content providers to invest in Thailand. The second phase is to increase IIG capability, especially via submarine cable, possible through investing in a new one or expanding the existing network. The third phase is to establish a digital innovation park in order to build a digital business and service ecosystem in Thailand.

I think they have it backwards. Phase 1, and as fast as possible, Thailand should establish a Special Economic Zone for ICT businesses, in proximity to a decent technical university.

But it's GTIN, training programs, and teaching farmers how to sell locally made products online. How quaint.

[rubl]

"three flagship projects including developing a global trade item number (GTIN)." ???

step one: define format of number

step two: allocate number

step three: let people know the number

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