The Thai Federation of the ICT Technology Association (TFIT) has submitted a white paper on the digital economy policy to the government in an effort to push forward a digitally-based economic development initiative.
"The proposal shows our position and can stimulate thinking and decisions on opportunities," said Vichai Bencharongkul, TFIT's chairman.
The association submitted the proposal to Deputy Prime Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula last week, he said.
TFIT consists of 14 ICT-related associations including computer hardware, software, networking and telecom, digital content and e-learning, computer graphics and games, animation and internet service providers.
Mr Vichai said the association urged the government to focus on four critical areas: infrastructure, e-commerce, ICT human resource development and government services.
For infrastructure, he said the government should build a national broadband network. Measures to enforce minimum internet speeds at 30 megabits per second in 2015 and 100 Mbps by 2020 are also needed.
Accelerating the country's telecom network coverage to 90% of households by 2016 and 95% by 2020 is also essential.
Mr Vichai said telecom network sharing should be implemented to reduce network investment redundancies, which could help lower imports of network equipment by 15% by 2016.
In addition, investment for at least five more international internet gateways including submarine cable infrastructure is needed for construction over the next five years.
He said the state should promote increasing online merchants to 80,000 by 2016, up from 50,000 now, to serve the digital economy.
Thailand's business-to-consumer e-commerce is expected to be worth at least 5 billion baht in 2016. To serve this growing market, government services need to shift rapidly towards electronics-based activities including e-invoices, e-receipts and e-tax invoices.
Development of ICT human resources is another important area of focus, said Mr Vichai. The ICT literacy rate should increase to at least 80% by 2015.
Setting a national digital content and data centre by 2017 is needed to service digital content and e-learning in a market worth 10 billion baht annually.
Finally, he said the government must eliminate existing legal barriers and reform data protection legislation. Endorsement of a data protection law and foreign labour law should become effective next year.
A clear definition on the roles and responsibility of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Committee must also be concluded soon.
Mr Vichai urged policymakers to encourage global content providers to establish their computer servers and data centres here to ensure competitiveness and national security.
The most important move is for the government to endorse the establishment of the ICT Council next year to promote collaboration between the public and private sectors, he said.