Digital Thailand will help narrow urban-rural divide
THE 20-YEAR, four-phase plan to develop Thailand into a fully digital country is going in the right direction, as its focus is on the relevant elements and policy thinking necessary to make “Thailand 4.0” a success and beneficial to its citizens. Let us explore this further through the prism of demographics, literacy rates and other aspects.
Thailand’s population is largely rural. Its urban population – principally in Greater Bangkok – was 45.7 per cent of the total in 2010. Digital Thailand will bridge the urban-rural divide.
The United Nations classifies Thailand as an ageing society (one-tenth of the population over 60 years old), on track to become an aged society (one-fifth of the population above 60) by 2025.
An ageing or aged society puts pressure on the government to deliver social benefits.
Digital Thailand will enable ease of delivery of these social benefits to a majority of the population.
Thailand has a very high literacy rate (93.5 per cent in 2014). Most of the present generation of students is computer-literate.
Thailand obtained Internet access in 1996 and since then use of the Internet has become more popular, and also more accessible. Thailand saw a rapid growth in the number of broadband users in 2005.
One-third of the population has regular access to Internet. Thais spend an average 16 hours on the Internet per week.
In 2013, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology announced that 27,231 schools would receive classroom-level access to high-speed Internet.
Mobile penetration is also very high (more than 100 per cent since 2010).
Digital Thailand will pay rich dividends and provide significantly more opportunities, particularly for entrepreneurial Thais. Digital Thailand will enable new business models to evolve and be a big boost for the start-up industry.
English is a mandatory |school subject, but the number of fluent speakers remains low, |especially outside the cities. This could appear to dampen the prospects of the effectiveness of Digital Thailand in its ability to service this vast market. However, because English is a mandatory subject, Thais write reasonably good English. Digital Thailand’s ability to be inclusive is not |limited by this.
Thus, at a macro level, a |Digital Thailand will pay rich|dividends.
Suryanarayan Kasichainula is business head (enterprise resource planning) of Indian IT company 3i Infotech.
