The Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry aims to use a centralised data-sharing government platform by 2023 through the Government Data Center and Cloud (GDCC) service as part of efforts to boost public services within a single window for data access.
GDCC is the central cloud system to be used by government agencies, ensuring security and serving as a big data facility for state agencies. It facilitates data exchange between the government and public sectors through a central cloud.
The move is in line with the country's digital transformation under the government's Thailand 4.0 policy.
Speaking at a forum entitled "Gov Cloud 2020: The Future of Digital Government" on Thursday, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said the GDCC would help reduce the burden on state agencies, which would otherwise be required to invest in data centres themselves, as well as ease the procedures in relation to the process of digital transformation.
"The next step for digital government is to improve convenience for the public sector through a central platform that supports interaction with people," said Gen Prayut. The move should also improve the country's digital competitiveness, he said.
The GDCC, operated by state telecom enterprise CAT Telecom, began operating last year.
DES Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta said the GDCC has the capacity to handle 8,000 virtual machines (VM), rising to 12,000 VM by January 2021. Demand from state agencies currently stands at 30,000 VM, he said.
Mr Buddhipongse said the schedule calls for the GDCC's capacity to reach 21,000 VM by the end of 2021, but this level may be insufficient.
Numerous state agencies are gearing up for digital platform adoption and data centres, partly due to the impact from the pandemic, he said.
"The prime minister assigned us to consider all options to expand the GDCC's capacity to meet demand from state agencies. He also wants us to come up with methods to support data centre investment in the country," said Mr Buddhipongse.
The ministry plans to discuss with the Board of Investment incentives and an easing in the conditions to support data centre investment in the country, he said.
The DES minister assigned state telecom enterprise TOT to establish a new data centre in 2021 to cater to demand from the private sector in the Eastern Economic Corridor. The TOT is in the process of studying the details of the project.
"The ministry plans to promote Thailand as the hub of data centre business in Asean too," he said.
Regarding the digital roadmap, Mr Buddhipongse said 70% of state agencies are expected to transfer data into GDCC, with the infrastructure 100% ready by 2021. By 2022, GDCC should support data sharing among agencies on the platform, embedded with Internet of Things and AI technologies. By 2023, it would be upgraded to become a platform that will serve as a centralised venue that can be accessed in real time.