IT giants point to successful 'digital economy' models overseas

 

 

 

Giant technology vendors are recommending that the government base its “digital economy” policy on their successful deployments of ICT-related schemes in other countries. 

Cisco Systems’ managing director for Thailand and Indochina, Vatsun Thirapatarapong, said his firm had the ability to be a part of transforming Thailand into a “smart country” through the military regime’s digital-economy policy. But it needs to wait for the regime to spell out its plans in concrete terms so the company knows which areas it can participate in, and how. 

However, he said, Cisco is ready to provide consultancy support to the government as well as to kick off pilot projects. 

He said Cisco had worked with the Israeli government to implement a national broadband system under the public-private-partnership (PPP) model. As another example, Cisco worked with the South Korean government to implement a smart-city initiative in Incheon’s Songdo International Business District.

Cisco points to the US$35-billion (Bt1.14 trillion) Songdo project as a model for smart cities around the globe and an example of a new city that brings together the world’s best technologies, building design and eco-friendly practices to create the ultimate lifestyle and work experience.

“In this initiative, Cisco was involved since the design process, developing case [studies] and building mock-ups, until the phase-by-phase roll-out. Now, it is in the third phase,” Vatsun said.

Cisco also worked with the French government on digitalising the country.

Vatsun said Cisco had invested in Thailand for the long term. Its regional and global executives are willing to support the government’s digital-economy policy, pooling team resources to that end.

He recommended the Internet of Things as a way to set up smart cities in Thailand, since IoT consists of many areas that allow many technology vendors to participate, especially local developers of applications and content.

“We are in the group of technology leaders, we try to lead our partners to help the government. We have experience in transforming countries and we hope we can have a chance to do the same in this country.” 

Intel Microelectronics (Thailand)’s country manager, Sontiya Nujeenseng, said his firm could support the government’s promotion of a digital economy and knowledge society through Intel’s educational technologies and initiatives. 

For example, Intel Teach is a “training the trainer” programme, offering a series of free online professional-development courses aiming to improve teacher effectiveness, while Intel Easy Step provides adult learners with the opportunity for enhanced social and economic self-sufficiency through digital literacy. 

Intel also has technology training for small and medium-sized enterprises.

In the area of educational support, he said the company recommended that Thailand model its programme on the successful initiatives in Portugal. There, the government worked with a local manufacturer named JP Sa Couto to produce the Classmate PC, an education-specific device, for schoolchildren. 

Intel helped JP Sa Couto with the device’s design and to set up and run the production lines. It produced 600,000 Classmate PCs in three years, and is now also manufacturing tablets. So far, it has produced more than 3 million Classmate PCs and tablets under its own brand, and has received orders from the Brazilian government, which has launched a similar “one PC per child” project. 

“We would like to recommend this kind of model to the [Thai] government if it wants to offer one PC or tablet per child. This model would also help create demand for many related businesses such as batteries, LCD monitors and software.” 

Intel this year will focus on four IoT areas: telecommunications, industry and energy, transport, and smart cities. Vatsun said Intel was working with government organisations to launch pilot projects under the smart-city concept. It is possible some of these projects will be launched in the first half of this year. 

“The details cannot be disclosed at the moment, but we are working on getting some smart-city pilot projects launched. There are many areas that we have discussed including smart buildings, smart traffic management, and smart surveillance systems.”