Ministries and Huawei jointly introduces Digital Roadmap to support “Thailand 4.0” vision.

Focus on three key areas: Aging Society, Agriculture and Tourism

[Bangkok,Thailand,June 1, 2017] Thailand's Ministry of Sciences & Technology, Ministry of Digital Economy & Society, and Huawei, a leading global ICT solutions provider, have jointly developed a digital roadmap to help the Kingdom propelling into the digital economy and achieving its “Thailand 4.0” vision.

Developed in collaboration with Roland Berger, the white paper, titled “Insights on Digitalization of Thailand Industry: Digital Roadmap for Aging Society, Agriculture and Tourism" came as a result of a meeting of Huawei Senior Management team and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha in 2016 who identified 3 sectors that are among the top national agenda for Thailand : aging society, agriculture and tourism.

The Road Map has been developed from a realization that digital technologies can drive socio-economic development and economic growth of countries, and Thailand should more actively promote development and adoption of digital solutions to help achieve prosperity, stability, sustainability, escape middle-income trap and develop the Kingdom into high-income nation.

The Road Map includes recommendations on how Thailand can best leverage digital technologies to tackle three very important issues for the country: manage an aging society, improve the agriculture industry and develop the tourism industry. Thirty-nine initiatives are identified covering these three sectors, as well as four ICT-enablers: broadband infrastructure, cloud infrastructure, innovation, and human capital.

The Roadmap has been developed in alignment with relevant priorities, master plans, and initia-tives at national and sector levels. More than 120 meetings were conducted with experts and stakeholders from the public sector, businesses, start-ups, academic, association, and international organizations, and inputs and suggestions were incorporated to the Roadmap. The Roadmap received endorsements and approvals from both high-level government officials as well as key industry leaders.

Huawei’s President of Government affairs Mr. Victor Zhang said, “Overall, digital transformation across these three fundamental sectors for Thailand will address key challenges and improve sustainable long-term development.”

“Technological advancement and adoption will support Thailand in becoming a regional digital hub for innovation, with a pool of world-class digital talents to continuously launch new digital products and services. This vision is underlined by Huawei’s commitment to dissolve boundaries to tap into collective wisdom, and the pursuit for exploration, which lights the way to an intelligent world.” he said.

In his opening address, Minister of Digital Economy & Society, Dr. Pichet Durongkaveroj said the ministry has formulated the Digital Economy & Society Development Plan to integrate and align the country’s plans toward its “Digital Thailand” vision.

“This cooperation marks an important step in our development in the second phase, that is to build a collaboration between every stakeholder to moving toward the digital society and sustainable development of the country,”

“Developing human resources to be readied for the digital economy and society is also one of the strategies,” said the minister.

In her keynote address, Ministry of Sciences & Technology Dr. Atchaka Sibunruang stressed the importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors in science and technological development for which to ensure a maximum benefit to the country and its citizens.

The Ministry of Science and Technology has initiated many plans and projects as part of its bid to upgrade the country’s science and technology competencies, including providing support to startups, developing educational curriculum and science and technology personnel, and offering financial support to startups and tech companies, added she.

In conjunction with the launch of the white paper, the seminar is held on topic “Thailand Digitali-zation Roadmap toward 2021: Agriculture, Health & Aging Society, and Tourism.” The participants include stakeholders from government agencies, businesses, start-ups, academia, international organizations, foundations and business associations, as well as local communities.

Huawei’s Zhang added, “Huawei, as a world’s leader in ICT solutions, is committed to supporting Thailand in its digitalization efforts and has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Innovation Agency (NIA) and National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC). The White paper is a key component of this MoU.”

Huawei provides one-stop enterprise ICT infrastructure across cloud, pipe and terminals to help enterprises stay competitive in the digital age. As of December 31, 2016, Huawei had approximately 180,000 employees. The group has 14 regional headquarters (including regional-level representative offices), 15 R&D centers, 31 joint innovation centers, and 45 training centers worldwide. In 2016, Huawei achieved a global sales revenue of CNY521.6 billion (US$75.1 billion), 32% higher than that of 2015. The net margin reached CNY37.1 billion (US$5.3 billion), improved by 0.4% compared to that of 2015.