THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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Digital revolution a Work in progress

Digital revolution a Work in progress

Government will overhaul legal, tax and education laws to speed up tech shift, ministers tell MIT workshop 

PROMOTING Research and development, technology, innovation, and start-ups are crucial to helping leapfrog the country’s income by advancing towards the government’s Thailand 4.0 policy, which aims to enhance the country’s competitive capabilities and create sustainable growth.
Kobsak Phutrakul, a minister attached to Office of the Prime Minister, said at the MIT Global Start-up Workshop (GSW) 2018 that it will establish a new working group consisting of local and global start-ups and government officials to recommend necessary changes to the existing legal and tax systems.
Kobsak said the government is now working on revising the existing set of incentives to attract international companies to set up regional headquarters and regional research centres in Thailand, especially in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) area.
For its part, government will revise the existing law, global research agencies and activities.
Innovative capability will be one of the most important determinants of future success in a world of increasing competitions, he emphasised. 
“We will have major revamp that will affect the future direction of research and the way that funding will be allocated, as well as the future of curriculum at all of the universities. This change will allow researchers to focus on project initiatives that will be able to lead to commercialising products. In addition, new incentives will be provided to universities to establish their start-up support centres, the same way that Chulalongkorn University opened Siam Innovation District last month,” said Kobsak.
“We are now in the most exciting and challenging period; these initiatives are the beginning of the list of what the Thai government will do to prepare Thailand for the future challenges in the coming age of the fourth industrial revolution,” he said.
Comparing Thailand to the US and Israel – the frontrunners in the world of start-ups – Kobsak said Thailand is still lacking in many ways, but the government is planning to become more aggressive in catching up with their lead and to become a hotbed for start-up activities.
Last year, for example, the government reduced income tax from 35 per cent to 15-17 per cent for the experts working in research facilities in the EEC area. In addition, the government revised the law to allow for hiring specialised experts to enable foreign educational institutes to establish their branches in Thailand, especially in the EEC area. 
“We really hope MIT considers coming to Thailand to establish a branch here, as well. We are really confident in Thailand becoming the centre of one of the most exciting and vibrant regions in the world,” said Kobsak.
Meanwhile, Digital Economy and Society Minister Pichet Durongkaveroj said at the same event that the role of the government is to create the new economic platform, called “Start-up”, to bring entrepreneurial ideas into reality. 
To drive Thailand to move forward, the EEC is the megaproject for Thailand 4.0, he said, and “Start-up” is the new economic army to help government and society to move Thailand upward. The pool of start-ups in Thailand today is rather small, and needs to expand, said Pichet, and how to expand partly depends on both public and government sectors, along with issues of taxation and creating incentives.
There are 75,000 villages in Thailand, with 75 per cent of them now on the Internet, thanks to a government initiative. A plan is in place to connect the remaining 25 per cent, he said. 
In 2017 alone, around 24,700 villages were connected. By the end of 2018, all Thailand will be connected via a broadband network, creating vast opportunities for start-ups to do business throughout the country. 
Last year, the government also set aside Bt5 billion for CAT Telecom to increase both domestic and international submarine cable capacity, as well as create a new link enabling Thailand to become the hub of the region. This enables start-ups to connect to do business and social development with other countries in the world.
“Government alone cannot create the success, it needs collaboration among the government, private sector, universities, and start-ups” said Pichet. 
Richard Lester, associate provost of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said at the same event that there are many Thai leaders working actively to build up their universities and research institution. He compared their collaboration to change the future of Thailand to the similar founding of institutes to support and accelerate the US industrial revolutions.
MIT applies a problem-solving approach as powerful way to deal with challenges in the three areas of education, research and innovation.
The Sasin School of Management joined hands with the MIT Association of Thailand to bring the MIT Global Start-up Workshop (GSW) 2018 here from March 25 to 27. 
MIT’s workshop is the premier global training and networking event for entrepreneurs, and has been hosted in a different country each year since 1998. This year is the first time Thailand hosted the GSW event, which was presented under the theme of “dream big, dream tech ... tools for the innovation-driven entrepreneur”.

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