The global tech powerhouse Huawei has praised Thailand for being a 5G leader in Asean and suggested that the country would better benefit from the cutting-edge technology by establishing a national 5G alliance.
The comments were made by Abel Deng, chief executive of Huawei Technologies Thailand, in an address to “Shaping Tomorrow: Power of 5G and Technology Convergence”, a virtual event hosted by the Bangkok Post on Friday.
“Among all the Asean countries, I would like to say that Thailand is now definitely the leader in 5G,” said Mr Deng as he gave examples of 5G developments in the country’s consumer and industrial sectors.
For the consumer market, new infrastructure has stimulated rapid 5G development across the country. There are now 3 million 5G subscribers, a massive expansion of more than 20,000 5G sites countrywide, and a better user experience compared to 4G in terms of download speed and latency.
In the industry market, 5G has been adopted by major companies across important sectors such as manufacturing, financial services, retail, healthcare and agriculture.
“We are so inspired and excited to see the infrastructure deployment in Thailand for 5G. We now have a very good network with a very good customer experience,” said Mr Deng. “For public empowerment, we have done a lot to make it more affordable and to train more talents in Thailand, and also to educate more people and leave no one behind in knowing this new technology.”
Huawei supports the concept of comprehensive digital infrastructure policy and plans from different superpowers in the world. Examples include the New Infrastructure Plan in China with 5G as its primary component, the Next Generation EU in the European Union, the Digital New Deal in South Korea, and the Rescue Plan in the United States.
The Chinese telecommunication giant sees those digital policies as offering incentives to stimulate a more efficient digital economy development, suggesting further steps that Thailand can take to make 5G more beneficial.
“We do think, to establish a national 5G alliance is necessary and a must,” said Mr Deng. “Take a reference from other pioneering countries to have a better 5G ecosystem, to bring 5G to a higher level, to enrich people’s lives, to have industry development, and to boost digital economy development.”
He said Thailand had done an excellent job in terms of its digital policy and the ecosystem. For its part, Huawei is “looking to more mergers to really inspire the whole industry and to bring more people to contribute together to bring the 5G to society”, he added.
According to ONDE research, it is projected that 5G would increase the GDP of Thailand by 10% or approximately 2.3 trillion baht by 2035.
Huawei envisions a Thailand 5G Alliance as having five components: information sharing, collaborative innovation, standard influence, technology support, and cross-industry exchange.
The company’s vision is to establish a platform for private-public sector cooperation and cross-industry collaboration in the 5G industry to spur digital economy development.
Mr Deng closed his speech on an optimistic note, expressing confidence that 5G will light up a brighter future for Thailand.
“Together, we would like to bring the 5G and digital technology to every person, home and organisation for a fully connected, intelligent and low-carbon Thailand,” he said.