In the driver’s seat 

The NATIONAL Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) has set goals to help drive Thailand beyond its current middle-income status through application of science and technology under the agency's three-year plan (2018 to 2020), which focuses on a bio-economy and digital economy strategy.
Under the focus on bio-economy, the agency has developed the national biological database, nicknamed “Bio-bank”, which collects and digitises bio-information including plant (seed, cell, and tissue cultures), animal, microbe, and human genomes, said Narong Sirilertworakul, president of The National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA). Bio-bank was established to support industrial research and biotechnology development.
The bio-bank is set to build the fundamental infrastructure of a bio-economy. 
The agency has set its own budgets of Bt1.72 billion to develop the bio-bank over three years – 2018 to 2020. 
But bio-bank’s, task goes beyond collecting basic biological information, to using genome-sequencing processes to turn the raw database of biology into value-added biological data in an electronic format. 
The Thailand bank already has information on 80,000 strains, including 12,000 species of microbes, 7,000 species of seeds, 1,000 species of rice, and 800 species of herbs. 
The NSTDA will work with partners, including local and global research institutes such as Beijing’s Genomics Institute (BGI), as well as some medical schools in Thailand, to develop data for the bio-bank.
“We will use big data analytics and gene editing to improve and to create new seeds, strains, and species to add into the bio-bank,” said Narong. In parallel with this project, NSTDA will also establish the “plant factory” to scale up herb planting to industrial levels under controlled conditions, in order to improve the quality of herbs and to turn herbs into functional ingredients for medical and cosmetic industries. 
“With this role, we aim to drive Thailand to become the world supplier for functional ingredients for food and cosmetic industries, included functional food, bio-cosmetics, and bio-pharma,” said Narong.
The combined impact of the bio-bank, gene editing, and the “plant factory”, should help Thailand become a world supplier for the functional-ingredient industry.
Moreover, the agency also works with research partners on research-and-development projects that reflect the local needs. Examples include R&D on health, beauty, and medicine to serve the goal of sustaining a healthy ageing society. 
But it doesn’t end there.

National computing centre
The agency also focuses on the digital economy. It is establishing the nation’s High-Performance Computing centre as part of the national infrastructure in order to help researchers, governmental organisations, and businesses to easily perform big-data analysis for any applications. 
The agency prepared a budget of Bt130 million for three years, from 2018 to 2020, for setting up and running the national HPC centre. 
“The national HPC centre can help the government and stakeholders to do big-data analysis,” said Narong. “For example, it helps to do big-data analysis on closed-circuit television’s (CCTV) information analytics, transportation, and the welfare-card scheme’s poor information,” said Narong.
Apart from the national HPC centre, the agency will also apply research resources to new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and sensors in order assist stakeholders to benefit from using science and technology in bringing about the digital transformation. 
Narong added that between the bio-economy and there digital economy lies an abundance of opportunities for new business for the country by utilising the benefits of the bio-bank and the national HPC centre to create new services that help increase the country's competitive advantages. For example, it can help agriculturists to do precision agriculture.

EECi and Thailand 4.0
The NSTDA agency follows the government’s “Thailand 4.0” policy, which aims to enhance Thailand’s competitive capabilities and develop the country sustainably with benefits from research and development in science, technology and innovation. NSTDA also provides services that promote and leverage science, technology and innovation among private businesses and industries.
Though NSTDA’s role in relation to Thailand 4.0 is to focus on the bio-economy and digital economy, the agency’s main focus is more general – to support science and technology research and development, to transfer research and technology to industry and science, to develop science and technology human resources for the country, and to establish and provide the national science and technology infrastructure including the Thailand Science Park and Innovation Hub in the Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation (EECi). 
The EECi aims to become the “Innovation Ecosystem” of Asean, operating under a concept of industrial growth in Thailand based on the creation of innovation. 
The EECi is working to become a new economic area that attracts an abundance of research and innovation. It will be generously equipped with infrastructure and industrial analytical testing services.
The EECi will increase the competitive capacity of Thai industries in global markets while enhancing the quality of life of people living in the area. As an important tool in the government’s “Thailand 4.0” policy, it will focus on addressing the problems facing both industries and communities.
The NSTDA has since 2002 successfully operated the Thailand Science Park – the country's first fully-integrated research and development hub – in Pathum Thani province north of Bangkok. 
More than 80 organisations, companies and research institutes have now set up research units in the Thailand Science Park.