Thailand must become a digital content hub by 2018 to lure internet content giants to base their servers here or it risks lagging behind the other tech hubs in the region, says an industry boss.
Being a digital content hub will also enhance the country's competitiveness and reduce the cost for internet connections, said Manabu Kahara, president of NTT Communications (Thailand), the local operating unit of Japan's NTT Communication Corporation.
Thailand's data centre and cloud-based service market are projected to grow by at least 20% from 2016-18.
More importantly, Mr Kahara said Thailand needs to ease restrictions on foreign ownership for submarine cable infrastructure business here.
"The government should liberalise the market by allowing foreign firms to wholly invest in submarine cable infrastructure, removing the 49% limit on total foreign ownership," he said.
There are only eight submarine cable lines in Thailand compared with over 15 in Singapore -- the main reason why internet content giants like Google or Facebook routed their internet traffic through Singapore and Malaysia.
The cost of international internet connection fees in Thailand is 10 times higher than in the US and five times higher than in Singapore, said Mr Kahara.
He said Thailand has high potential to become a digital content hub thanks to its geographical position.
Mr Kahara also urged the Thai government to provide tax incentives to companies that want to invest in submarine cable infrastructure.
Sanit Kashemsanta Na Ayudhaya, product and service director of NTT Thailand, said the company will upgrade its existing cloud services to enterprise-grade cloud service 2.0 in 2017 to serve the development of the country's digital economy.
"Thailand will be the third country in the region to move to Cloud 2.0, after Singapore and Hong Kong, of those housing our 14 cloud service centres," said Mr Sanit.
Teerawut Sunamalai, vice-president and chief financial officer of NTT Thailand, said the company plans to spend 300 million baht on construction of the second phase of its data centre in Chon Buri next year.
A report conducted by global research firm IDC Thailand suggested local demand for data centres will continue to increase by at least 20% during 2016-2018, as more companies are embracing digital transformation.
The firm projects the local data centre supply in Thailand will rise by 30%.