Thailand is the top country in Asean for enterprises to explore and implement Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to boost their productivity and innovation, thanks to awareness based on government policy and investment in both soft and hard infrastructure, according to a survey.
The survey by the Asia IoT Business Platform in 2017 found 89% of enterprises in Thailand are exploring and/or implementing IoT solutions, the highest percentage in Asean, followed by Malaysia (86%), Indonesia (83%), the Philippines (80%) and Vietnam (79%).
The survey had 1,573 respondents in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.
In Thailand, the percentage of those enterprises exploring and/or implementing IoT solutions has increased to 92% this year, with manufacturing holding the largest share (27.4%) of overall industrial value, as it is critical to adopt and deploy IoT to capitalise on the new economy.
Irza Suprapto, chief executive of Asia IoT Business Platform at Industry Platform Pte, said the figure in Thailand is not surprising because of the many Industry 4.0 related projects.
The high percentage is a positive for Thailand because manufacturing is the largest contributor to the country’s economy, said Mr Irza.
"There has been strong interest from local enterprises in Thailand to implement digitisation and IoT projects. The demand creates an ecosystem of innovation locally as it encourages investment by technology startups and established solution providers in Thailand," he said.
Mr Irza said in 2017, 89% of Thai enterprises were exploring and implementing IoT, of which 42% are in the fact-finding stage, 25% of them are in the exploratory stage and 22% have already implemented and/or benefited from IoT solutions.
In 2018, 92% of Thai enterprises are exploring and/or implementing IoT, of which 35% are in the fact-finding stage, 29% are in the exploratory stage and 28% have already implemented and/or benefited from IoT solutions.
The survey also shows 26% of Thai enterprises have dedicated teams to implement digital transformation, with 32% saying digital transformation has already been implemented in at least one functional area within their businesses.
Yesterday, the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA), under the Digital Economy and Society Ministry (DE), held a press conference and signed a memorandum of understanding with Asia IoT Business Platform to hold “Asia IoT Business Platform (AIBP) Thailand 2018” from July 24-25 at the InterContinental hotel in Bangkok. The conference aims to deliver the latest statistics from an Asean-wide survey covering enterprise digitisation.
Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin, president of DEPA, said the agency expects the event next month will facilitate local tech startups to find business-matching with global players, especially for the IoT-related business ecosystem.
“Working with AIBP will help local small businesses as well as startups obtain more opportunities to enter new regional markets, serving DEPA’s road map of digital knowledge exchange and development of innovative business,” he said.
Tanapong Ittisakulchai, director for small and mid-market solutions and partners at Microsoft Thailand, said digital transformation could add as much as US$387 billion (12.7 trillion dollars) to Asia-Pacific’s economy by 2021, and business leaders across the region viewed IoT as one of the top tech priorities in achieving their digital transformation.