Thailand ai8k8 com log inms to be regional hub of digital economy

Thailand will boost the country's digital security and competitiveness, increase investment and empower human capital to promote the kingdom as a digital economy hub for Southeast Asia, a senior official revealed on Wednesday.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Techsauce Global Summit in Bangkok, Thai Minister of Digital Economy and Society Prasert Jantararuangtong said the country will continue to move ahead in its "Thailand Vision" and build itself into a regional digital hub.

"We will enhance our digital security and competitiveness by investing more in infrastructure to ensure data security. The ministry will also give more support to technology research and development," Prasert said.

He noted that artificial intelligence will play an important role in the map of the country's technology growth, as well as confirming that Thailand will build open data centers to support AI solutions and data sharing.

Earlier this year, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin unveiled the "Thailand Vision", which laid out ambitious plans for the country to become a regional hub for tourism, medical treatment, food, aviation, logistics, electric vehicles, digital economy and finance.

Srettha said his government would support the development of technology innovations and AI and would provide investment privileges for high-tech firms to open semiconductor factories or open data centers in Thailand to facilitate cloud computing.

Thailand's data center market has been ranked the third largest among member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

It continues to post significant growth, thanks to the investment requirements among global and local providers operating in the industry, according to a recent report by Thailand's Kasikorn Research Center.

It is estimated that investment in data centers in Thailand will reach $7.8 billion between 2024 and 2027.

The predicted industry demand for digital talent means Thailand will also face a shortage of about 600,000 highly skilled digital experts by 2027.

"We will offer digital literacy courses suitable for laborers in the digital economy, as well as create awareness of digital skills among people. And we will further support knowledge exchange and training to increase Thailand's digital workforce," Prasert said.

As Southeast Asia's leading tech event, Techsauce Global Summit aims to position Thailand as the digital gateway to the region. It is a pivotal gathering for tech and startup enthusiasts, driving innovation and digital advancement across the region.

"Southeast Asia is a market with great future potential where the digital economy will see a promising surge in a wide range of fields from people's daily life to the public application scenarios, such as in the government or the enterprises," said Zhou Chuanfu, vice-president of iFlytek Open Platform.

As a Chinese AI company focusing on speech recognition technology, iFlytek entered the Thai market last year.

At the summit, it demonstrated models and services including a multilingual translation model that supports real-time translation on a dual-sided screen. Its transparency enhances communication by allowing users to see information and each other's facial expressions through the screen.

"Now we are collaborating with local companies in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, using our innovation and successful experiences to speed up the region's step toward the AI trend," Zhou said.

Zhou said AI can be well employed in tourism and service industries, which are among the major supporting sectors of the economy in many Southeast Asian countries.

"For example, our digital human customer service model can provide answers to user inquiries. The round-the-clock service that offers a variety of digital avatars and voices will be very efficient and labor-saving," he added.