The government is willing to change every draft law in efforts to realise the so-called digital economy, Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, an adviser to Deputy Prime Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula, said yesterday.
He was responding to mounting concerns over the government's aggressive bid to pass the laws seen as necessary for implementing the digital economy policy.
Mr Sitthichai said Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda had eight years to accomplish the Eastern Seaboard scheme, but as the current government won't stay around as long, it must enact laws that will ensure the implementation of its digital economy policy.
The electronic government idea has been around more than two decades but it has gone nowhere due to a lack of cooperation among state agencies, he said.
The government would give the committee leading the implementation of the policy extraordinary powers to urge ministries to cooperate, said Mr Sitthichai.
Without this powerful mechanism, the country will never see it happen, he said.
Citing the example of registering new e-commerce companies, he said many operators have opted to become illegal online operators due to the red tape involved in business registrations, he said.
As a result, the government has lost an opportunity to collect taxes from those online businesses, said Mr Sitthichai.
When the digital economy steering committee is set up and given sufficient powers, online registrations, for instance, will take less than one hour to finish, he said.
A new "Digital Ministry" will act as a liaison body for the digital economy committee that will hold the highest power in implementing the digital economy policy, he said.
The government expects to see Thailand equipped with an effective telecommunications infrastructure in the next two years, with each household connected with fibre-optic telecommunication systems, he said.
The goal is to turn Thailand into an internet hub that can replace Singapore while also becoming the centre of Asean, said Mr Sitthichai, a former Information and Communication Technology minister.
"We have to build more gateways to attract international firms to set up their offices here. We aim to make internet services here secure and the cheapest in Asean in one to two years," he said.
Cybercrimes happen all over the world and Thailand must have tough laws in place to deal with them, otherwise they could cause dire economic losses, he said.
Responding to concerns over a draft law that will give officials power to gain access to personal information and electronic devices without a court order, Mr Sitthichai said the draft can still be changed as it is being reviewed by the Council of State, the government's legal advisory body.
"Human rights can never be regarded as minor issue," he said.