Thailand, the 2nd largest economy of the ASEAN Region has transitioned its focus from being an industrial economy to a digital economy, following the widespread proliferation of the internet and Thai Government’s aggressive push towards digital transformation through it’s Thailand 4.0 initiative. Some of the key technology initiatives in focus are big data, robotic process automation, cloud, software as a service, IoT, and smart devices like CCTV and Bluetooth.
Compared with previous industrial revolutions, advancements in processing power, nanotechnology, 3D printing, AI, robotics, and automation are driving innovation in the new economy, transforming every facet of our lives and creating exciting growth opportunities.
The digital economy has generated new sources of revenues for telecommunications service providers, consumer electronics, digital entertainment, and gaming. With a tech-savvy population and mobile penetration of 133%, Thailand provides immense growth opportunities for businesses in high tech, online retail, and mobile gaming sectors resulting in high demand for IT services in the country. The need for enterprise mobility is likely to stimulate demand for new technologies in Thailand.
The Thai government and the ICT Ministry has rolled out the ‘Smart Thailand’ strategy, a project that is part of the national ICT framework known as ‘ICT 2020’. The Thai government has also launched a pilot project called ‘Smart City’, which empowers local industries to compete globally. The foremost objective of this initiative is to widen the penetration of the Internet to every house in the country and the availability of affordable devices for practical applications. The IT Market in Thailand is categorized into hardware, software, and services.
Emerging Technologies
As per The NATION – Thailand’s information technology (IT) market will grow more than 13 percent year on year during 2019 and will worth Bt527 billion by the end of this year. Hardware will be the biggest contributor with Bt234 billion while digital services will have the highest growth at 34 percent. Smart devices including CCTV and smart Bluetooth is valued at around Bt121 billion or 23 percent of the overall IT market. Software services will account for 20 percent with Bt106 billion and digital services will be valued at Bt65 billion, or 12 percent of the overall IT market.
The key issue enabling growth is the flow of digital use in all industries, the services sector, and the growing tendency for digital usage in all sectors, including social platform, cashless society, blockchain, chatbot, programmatic, and video clips including 3D, augmented reality and virtual reality. These will have an important role in public, advertising, and product demonstrations.
Thailand’s networking market is projected to hit THB 18.3 billion by 2025 from THB 10.7 billion in 2018 at a CAGR of 8% during the forecast period.
Thanachart Numnonda, director of IMC Institute, said that the IT industry had changed as businesses were challenged by the digital transformation. They needed to invest in new technology to support their business and increase productivity.
Technology areas like Big Data, IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and 5G would be key differentiators in the next decade of Thailand’s advancement.
Read more Digital scenarios of Thailand.