FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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ETDA signs MoU to develop E-commerce Park

ETDA signs MoU to develop E-commerce Park

The Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), which is under the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, today signed a MoU with Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon (RMUTP) to develop an E-commerce Park initiative.

In a press release issued on Friday, ETDA said the move is in line with the expansion of its Young Talent Platform to support the creation e-commerce personnel and develop the workforce needed to support the future in cooperation with major educational institutions. 
ETDA said it is also ready to cooperate with the Office of the Consumer Protection Board (OCPB) to support the protection of consumers through online platforms to keep up with digital technology.
Surangkana Wayuparp, ETDA president, said that in launching the “Young Talent Platform” and E-commerce Park, starting with Srinakharinwirot University last year, ETDA is hoping to cooperate with other educational institutions through the signing of MoUs to promote and support electronic transactions. 
“RMUTP is an educational institution that has the philosophy in building people who are specialised in technology to feed into the world of work. Today, business owners need human resources that have a variety of know-how and skills, and the fact that RMUTP has a wide network of nine universities and with the combination of art and technology education in one place. 
“They have also students all around the country that will help to develop and build a workforce for the digital industry, and allow electronic transactions and electronic commerce to fully function. Also, it will allow businesses to conveniently coordinate with one another, and incentivize more business to happen between them,” she said.
Surangkana added that the cooperation will focus on developing different programmes that will answer the needs of businesses in the digital era, to develop and promote the creation of a workforce that has knowledge and skills that are needed in the digital era in order to support SMEs and Enterprises. 
There will be programmes for students, as well as for the general public, to give them knowledge and the know-how to be able to do e-Commerce, and also assistance in finding necessary resources, such as personnel, budget and equipment for many uses that are covered by this MOU.
RMUTP is ready in terms of knowledge, personnel, faculty and a team of students that will be part of the development and circulation of knowledge, training, and advising on e-Commerce matters to businesses and people who are interested, as well as advising businesses to be able to use new online marketing platforms to support their own work in the most effective way. 
This cooperation is also a development of graduates and personnel to have the quality and reach standards that will be able to meet the needs of the labour market, and the development of the country in the future, which is one of the most important goals of the university as well.
“With the development of E-commerce Parks, we aim to produce about one million personnel, who have e-commerce skills, as well as 200,000 SMEs per annum. There are currently 50 million Internet users in Thailand,” said Surangkana. 
Assoc Prof Supatra Kosaiyakanont, acting president of RMUTP, said that the university is ready in terms of its knowledge base, its personnel, its faculty as well as with a team of students that are ready to be part of the development and circulation of knowledge, training, and advising on e-Commerce matters to businesses and people who are interested, as well as advising businesses to be able to use new online marketing platforms to support their own work in the most effective way. 
This cooperation is also a development of graduates and personnel to have the quality and reach standards that will be able to meet the needs of the labour market, and the development of the country in the future, which is one of the most important goals of the university as well.
“We are positioning ourselves as a ‘digital university’ and business incubator set to produce young entrepreneurs into the market. We produce about 3,000 new graduates per year and 90 per cent of them are employed. Between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of our new graduates are business entrepreneurs and we expect this proportion to increase to 50 per cent in the next four to five years,” Supatra said. 
Professor Surapongse Sothanasathien, acting chairman of the university council at RMUTP, said that the university has a plan to build a modern retail shop similar to ‘Phufa Shop’ at its location to be a place for students to sell their products, including foods and fashion apparels, as well as general merchandises. 
The university will also bring those products made by its students for selling on the website. This will be a model to be used further by other universities in RMUTP’s network.
At the same time, ETDA has also signed a MoU with the Office of the Consumer Protection Board (OCPB) to develop, support and promote Online Consumer Protection to be in line with problems consumers face today, and to manage changing technology in the digital world more closely. 
This is considered another important step in cooperation, the exchange of knowledge and the continued building of capacity for the protection of consumers using digital tools together. The signing of the MoU was witnessed by Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana Minister Attached to the Prime Minister’s Office
This cooperation between the agencies had the same goal, which is to develop more complete online consumer protection, which is in line with the 20 National Strategic Framework (2017 – 2036), which also covers the aspect of the development of platforms for the population by public agencies. 
Both organisations are also determined to build on multiple dimensions by integrating with different networks, both public and private, in order to better protect consumer rights online, and ensure that the consumers are treated fairly. The MoU focuses on 4 key elements:
1. The development of online consumer protection, including the collection of a database of online sellers, which will allow all sides to be able to access the information for the purposes of consumer protection.
2. The development of digital tools, systems or mechanisms that keep information safe and secure, which will lead to more analysis of Big Data, leading to better development of online consumer protection.
3. The exchange and creation of knowledge, experience and academic research that is related to online consumer protection.
And 4. The provision and support in resources, such as personnel, budget, and equipment for the execution of the work as contained in the MoU.

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