Huawei Technologies Thailand is joining hands with the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa) to gear up for 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud development to drive Thailand's digital economy and competitiveness amid challenges posed by the pandemic.
Within a few years, Thailand is expected to reach mainstream 5G adoption with 25% penetration, up from 10% in 2021.
The new collaboration comes after Huawei Technologies Thailand received the Prime Minister's special award -- Digital International Corporation of the Year -- marking its outstanding contribution to Thailand since it expanded here 21 years ago as well as its efforts to support digital transformation in the country.
"As a trusted ICT partner for the country, Huawei is continuing investment to help Thailand move towards Thailand 4.0 and become a digital hub in the region," said Abel Deng, chief executive of Huawei Technologies Thailand. "We will bring digital to every person, home and organisation, for a connected and intelligent Thailand."
This year the company wants to focus on developing 5G-based applications by working with Depa to set up a "5G alliance" that gathers key stakeholders, including mobile operators, system integrators, local developers, startups and the private sector to build a 5G ecosystem.
Huawei is also organising a 5G innovation competition in Thailand by attracting local developers and universities to create new applications and use cases, he said. This kind of activity is significant in ushering in new use cases to be leveraged by industries, said Mr Deng.
The company joined hands with Depa to launch the 5G Ecosystem Innovation Centre (5G EIC) last September, with a five-year investment commitment of 470 million baht.
"We developed 10 use cases at the 5G EIC and we are looking to empower 100 applications this year," he said.
"We expect to have applications that can solve pain points in real sectors and support the country's competitiveness in the areas of tourism, farming, logistics, supply chains, manufacturing and transformation."
AI and cloud computing will be important areas for every industry in the future, said Mr Deng. By 2025, 80% of businesses in Thailand are expected to use cloud and 85% to engage in AI.
He said small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) registered major damage during the pandemic in the third quarter of 2020. As the country's GDP contracted 8%, SME revenue plunged 12%.
Cloud computing and AI can help ensure faster digital transformation for SMEs, support business agility and reduce cost. That is why Huawei plans to open its third data centre worth 700 million baht to provide public cloud services, said Mr Deng.
Startups serve as a digital economy driver for the country, encouraging Huawei's "Cloud Spark Programme" that provides startups with free cloud usage credits, he said.
Thailand's digital economy contributes less than 15% of its GDP, compared with around 50% attained by the US and UK.
"Thailand's 5G adoption makes it a pioneer in Asean," said Mr Deng.
"We expect the digital economy to contribute 30% of Thailand's GDP by 2030."
Depa president Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin said Thailand needs to thrive in the digital economy to improve competitiveness.
"We cannot compete on low labour costs anymore as automation is prevalent in modern factories," he said.
The agriculture sector also needs big data and AI to boost production and product quality.
Depa and Huawei have worked together since 2017 on boosting digital skills, issuing a white paper on smart cities, and building 5G EIC and a 5G testbed in Si Racha district, said Mr Nuttapon.