5G, cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) will all be key elements in the infrastructure of the country's digital economy for the betterment of Thai people, the government said on Wednesday.
Wireless communication technologies are already core parts of Thailand’s development, namely social, economic and security development, said Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon.
Gen Prawit was speaking at the opening of Powering Digital Thailand 2022, an event jointly organised by the Bangkok Post, Huawei Technologies Co, and the Asean Foundation in Bangkok.
The forum is being held at the Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre at CentralWorld in Bangkok. It concludes on Friday.
The deputy prime minister said these technologies play an important role in Thailand's development, especially as the country’s economy prepares to bounce back from Covid-19.
"These technologies together are considered a key driving force in the development of Thailand’s digital economy through the further development of innovations and creating jobs," Gen Prawit said.
"Powering Digital Thailand 2022 is a good example of public-private cooperation to push for integrating the use of technologies in the country’s development," he said.
Minister of Digital Economy and Society (DES) Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn told the forum that the DES ministry has set a goal of having digital businesses account for 30% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030, up 17% from now.
Mr Chaiwut said the target is part of the government’s policy for post-Covid-19 pandemic economic recovery, including building digital infrastructures particularly cloud services, empowering digital business and creating a quality digital society.
He said the government has implemented a 20-year digital Thailand development roadmap in three phases — starting with creating a digital foundation and inclusion and reaching out to full digital transformation and becoming a leading global digital player.
The ministry has deployed free broadband internet for 74,987 villages over the past few years and boosted the capacity of submarine cables as part of the moves to turn the country into an Asean digital hub, Mr Chaiwut said.
“The internet penetration has now reached 80% of the country’s population while Thailand is the first mover of 5G wireless broadband in Asean,” Mr Chaiwut said.
Thailand has deployed 20,000 5G stations and has 4.3 million 5G users, which is 2.5 times the total number of 5G subscribers in other Asean countries combined.
Thailand’s 5G-empowered economy is expected to be as much as 2.3 trillion baht by 2035, according to a joint forecast by the Office of the National Digital Economy and Society Commission, Time Consulting and Huawei.
The pandemic has caused disruption in people’s normal life, in business and society, but the government has provided assistance to them via applications, Mr Chaiwut said, adding that Thai people are at the forefront in using internet banking and financial services through apps.
According to the minister, three approaches will be used to drive economic recovery in the wake of the pandemic.
The first involves a push to boost the capacity of digital infrastructure to accommodate innovation adoption and digital economy roadmaps, particularly data centres supporting cloud services.
The National Telecom (NT) provides the Government Data Center and Cloud Service (GDCC), which serves cloud usage among state agencies.
The second approach concerns efforts to empower digital business, which currently accounts for 17% of the country’s GDP. The government wants to see it surge to 30% by 2030, Mr Chaiwut said.
“Local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must be supported to adopt digital platforms to catch growth in the digital economy,” he said.
Lastly, the government wants to create a quality digital society by ramping up efforts to thwart cybercrime and online fraud that's growing alongside the digital economy.
The Industry Ministry plans to use the metaverse concept to train a new generation of Thai workers in virtual reality (VR) technology under its Creative Industry Village scheme. Metaverse refers to a non-physical world in which people can virtually interact with one another and the Industry Ministry wants to apply this digital technology economically.
“Digital technology plays a key role in solving many challenges, including global warming and an ageing population,” said Nattapol Rangsitpol, director-general of the Department of Industrial Promotion, during a seminar on “Powering Digital Thailand 2022”.
“The technology appears in almost everything and can be used to improve people’s quality of lives,” he said.
The Industry Ministry plans to use the metaverse concept to enhance learning efficiency as well as improve workers’ skills under its Creative Industry Village scheme, which is also aimed to develop local economies in the country.
“People wear VR headsets, create their own characters and simply travel to places like Ayutthaya,” said Mr Nattapol, referring to one application of the metaverse technology.
The Industry Ministry also plans to modernise the industrial sector through its “six-S’s policy” which includes S-Curve industry development by promoting the use of an automation system to solve a shortage of labourers in factories.
Another “S” in the policy is smart industrial agriculture development, which is aimed to promote the use of technology to plan and manage farming, food processing and marketing.