The Digital Economy and Society (DE) Ministry is gearing up for the establishment of the Thailand Digital Valley in Chon Buri’s Sri Racha district as an urgent project to make the country a key digital infrastructure hub in Asean.
The project will be a centre for technology showcases, forums, R&D and training, as well as a regional community for global tech firms. The goal is to develop an innovation ecosystem that continues until the commercial launch of products.
It will be developed from the original Internet of Things (IoT) Institute, which is a core part of the government’s Sri Racha-based Digital Park Thailand scheme — a new economic cluster meant as a destination for digital players and business innovators.
The scheme forms part of the government's Eastern Economic Corridor project.
DE Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta said on Tuesday Thailand Digital Valley is supported by the Digital Economy Society Council (DESC), which will play a role in fostering cooperation between Thai digital businesses and global tech firms.
Rather than focusing only on setting up the IoT Institute, “we'd better aggregate all related functions and operations for the digital ecosystem”, Mr Buddhipongse said.
Thailand Digital Valley, spanning 30 rai, is under construction in the first phase and is expected to be completed by next year.
“Global players such as Microsoft, Seagate, 3M and Oracle have expressed interest in participating in the planned Thailand Digital Valley as their R&D and innovation centre in the future,” Mr Buddhipongse said.
The DE Ministry is seeking cooperation from DESC president Suphachai Chearavanont, also the chairman of True Corporation, on development plans for five core innovative industries and improvement of digital workforce skills.
The five industries are education tech, fintech, health tech, agriculture tech and government tech. They are all under the development roadmap of the DE Ministry.
The DESC has teams studying the development of the five industries. Their findings are to be presented to the ministry next month.
The ministry wants to see 40,000 digital workers undergoing upskilling and reskilling each year over the next two years.