Ministry plans 24 ‘Digital Thailand’ projects worth over Bt3.7 billion

The plan follows the Cabinet’s approval of the ministry’s 24 projects worth Bt3.755 billion on Tuesday as part of its promotion of a “digital economy”.

ICT Minister Uttama Sava-nayana said yesterday that the key projects included the development of a so-called digital community network, which would see the upgrade of 2,280 existing community ICT learning centres.

In the initial phase, 600 of the community centres will be upgraded. The project will cost Bt700 million. 

Up to now, the learning centres have solely focused on providing ICT knowledge to people, but the digital-community-network concept will encourage community members to enter the e-commerce channel. The second project is the launch of 10,000 new public Internet access spots nationwide, at a cost of almost Bt900 million.

Two other projects are the further promotion of the use of digital technology by making small and medium-sized enterprises much more well versed in doing e-commerce, and the deployment of ICT to improve the public services offered by state agencies, including the development of online internal communication channels among all agencies. Another one will be the further development of Phuket as a “smart city”.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), the value of e-commerce market in Thailand this year is expected to reach Bt2.1 trillion.