To drive Thailand's digital economy, the country needs to encourage technology firms to invest in the country, improve people's digital skills and incubate local startups through the collaboration of state and private sectors, says the Digital Council of Thailand (DCT).
These three issues are essential for the post-Covid period, said DCT.
Veera Veerakool, vice-president of DCT and chairman of the council's global innovation hub mission committee, said these three elements are important for the development of the country's digital economy and digital transformation under the 4.0 policy.
First, the government should create incentives or attractive investment conditions that can draw global tech firms to invest in the country.
"The incentives can involve either personal income tax or corporate income tax," said Mr Veera.
Second, there is a need to upskill and reskill manpower for digital-related knowledge.
Workers still lack digital literacy, he said, as only 25% of them use email for communication; 9% are familiar with Microsoft PowerPoint; and 1% are capable of programming.
Finally, the DCT wants to see a seamless collaboration between state and private sectors in incubating tech startups, particularly those created by students.
Mr Veera made the remarks yesterday at a seminar on the country's recovery using the digital economy, organised by Matichon media group.
He said big data development by state agencies is good, but still not enough to drive the country forward through digital transformation because there is still inefficient collaboration on the issue by agencies.
The establishment of the National Digital Economy and Society Committee (NDESC) and the National 5G Committee are good initiatives, but the DCT expects to see more committees in charge of digital economy sectors, Mr Veera said.
Member of the committees should comprise private and state agencies to ensure practical implementation, he said.
Woragarn Likhitdechasakdi, deputy chief technology officer at Huawei Technologies Thailand, a local unit of the Chinese tech giant, said 164 countries have adopted digital strategies to gear up for digital economy development as a new engine for growth.
According to the International Telecommunication Union, a 20% increase in ICT investment can lead to a rise of 1% in a country's GDP.
Huawei believes Thailand has the potential to become a digital hub in Asean through core factor development and collaboration with partners, he said.
Thailand's ICT sector is projected to contribute 30% to the country's GDP in 2030, up from 10% at present.
The ICT sector's value is expected to rise 30% annually from 2030.
From next year, Thailand will experience new mainstream features, such as 5G, cloud, artificial intelligence and edge computing, said Mr Woragarn.