The National Digital Economy and Society Commission (NDESC) recently approved the establishment of a cloud first policy committee to steer all government agencies towards the digital government scheme.
The move aims to manage supply and demand of local cloud services and improve the cloud ecosystem and service procurement through cooperation between the public and private sectors.
According to Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who is chairman of the NDESC, the committee and its management structure will be effective from the date of the cabinet's approval.
The digital economy and society (DES) minister will chair the committee, while the ministry's permanent secretary and relevant government agencies will form the committee's membership, he said.
The NDESC secretary-general will also be a member of the committee as well as its secretary.
Mr Phumtham said the NDESC's recent meeting also approved guidelines for the project screening concerning the procurement or rental of a cloud service in cases when it is necessary to proceed with projects that have a clear source of funding.
DES Minister Prasert Jantararuangthong said the cloud first policy committee would support the policy of laying a foundation for the new related infrastructure.
This would increase state agencies' efficiency in providing public services by fully utilising digital technology.
The cloud first policy is aimed at making it more convenient for the general public to receive public services while increasing cybersecurity and promoting cloud infrastructure, he said.
The committee will play a role in supervising, monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the cloud first policy among all relevant state sectors and promoting the digital economy within the scope of its authority. It would report the results to the NDESC.
Massive Budget
Puchapong Nodthaisong, secretary-general of the NDESC, said cabinet approval for the creation of the committee would be sought today or next Tuesday.
"The committee is expected to hold its first meeting in early July," said Mr Puchapong.
In the first meeting, it will make a decision on the execution model of the policy, particularly for fiscal 2025. For example, the ministries using massive data, such as the health and education ministries, might need their own cloud system, he said.
The committee will also decide on the pooling of cloud use among many agencies, the minimum security standards of the cloud service they will use, and the cloud service fee payment.
In the 2024 fiscal year, the budget for cloud usage by the state agencies, including the one allocated for the existing Government Data Center and Cloud (GDCC), was around 3 billion baht.
The GDCC, which is operated by the state enterprise National Telecom, provides a cloud service to the state agencies.
Mr Puchapong, who oversees the GDCC, estimated that the cloud policy budget for fiscal 2025 would be 5-10 billion baht.
He said in fiscal 2024, the GDCC received a budget of 1.1 billion baht.
The GDCC would launch a bid to allow cloud providers to offer a cloud service to the state agencies. It will set the price of cloud usage, ranging from an entry level of around 500 baht per virtual machine to a high-end service with a price range of 4,000-10,000 baht. This requires hearing from a list of qualified cloud providers as bidders.
Mr Puchapong said the DES minister would propose to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin the appointment of a National AI Committee to reach the second phase of the National AI plan, with five strategies proposed by the Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Ministry.
The prime minister recently appointed a subcommittee on legal, human development and AI promotion.