The Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry is gearing up efforts to support 2,000 digital community centres nationwide to facilitate public service access and online learning to help people have greater opportunity in the online economy.
To support the move, the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa) has been assigned to provide locals with know-how for marketing and packaging of local products, as well as qualifications for their goods through training courses.
This is meant to ensure locals offer quality products to capitalise on the internet economy.
DES minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta said the centres would not only provide ICT training and online skill development, but also be used to facilitate tourism and public health.
The move is to achieve sustainable development via the existing national broadband network for villages called Net Pracharat.
State telecom enterprise TOT completed broadband internet installation at 24,700 villages under the Net Pracharat project in 2017. Each village has WiFi hotspots installed with a speed of 30 megabits per second (mbps) for downloads and 10mbps for uploads.
Mr Buddhipongse was on a trip to observe the Net Pracharat project during a mobile cabinet meeting in Rayong.
"Creating locally owned brands as well as increasing the effectiveness of store and warehouse management are needed for community enterprises," he said.
Through digital knowledge, locals can post their products online to increase sales opportunities. Depa should support technology as well as stores and warehouse management systems for locals, said Mr Buddhipongse.
In Rayong 114 villagers are engaged with the Net Pracharat project.
"The goal is to expand the high-speed internet network to cover villages nationwide to reduce the digital divide," he said.