THAILAND RISES TO 78TH IN GLOBAL IDI RANKING

Ioane Korovivuki, regional |director of ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific said the ITU in collaboration with the Digital Economy and Society Ministry (DE ministry) and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) have released Thailand’s IDI ranking for this year. 
The ITU’s IDI is a unique benchmark of the level of ICT development in countries across the world. The IDI is a composite index that combines 11 indicators into one benchmark measure that can be used to monitor and compare development in |ICTs between countries and |overtime. 
Moreover, the IDI is divided into three areas including access sub-index, Use sub-index ranking and skill sub-index rankings.
For IDI access sib-index, Thailand moved down from 88th last year to 91st this year. 
Meanwhile, for IDI use sub-index rankings, Thailand remains at 68th for the second consecutive year. Lastly, for the IDI skills sub-index ranking, the country has improved it’s ranking from 81st to 70th.
Other areas are Use sub-index, which includes three intensity and usage indicators and skill sub-index that captures capabilities or skills that are important for ICTs. It includes three proxy indicators including ICT access, ICT use and ICT skills.
The ICT access comes with fixed telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, international internet bandwidth per Internet user, percentage households with a computer and percentage of households with Internet access. 
The top three countries in this year’s IDI ranking are Iceland, Korea and Switzerland.

NOVOTEL SUVARNABHUMI
TO UNDERGO RENOVATION 

Novotel Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel is planning a major renovation after posting profits of more than 74.30 per cent or Bt140 million this year, in addition to setting goals of more than Bt1 billion in sales for the first time in 2020. 
Chairman Chaiwat Utaiwan said performance in 2017 was satisfactory, thanks to the hotel’s capacity for a large number of guests. 
The hotel will complete the renovations of both buildings in two years .