IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

People will soon be able to access more official services from post offices in line with the government's one-stop service policy.

Khunying Dhipavadee Meksawan, permanent secretary of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Ministry, said yesterday that on January 9, Thailand Post Co's head office in the Bang Rak area would begin providing 10 services from different state agencies as part of a pilot project.

The Consular Affairs Department will today begin pilot testing electronic passports (e-passports) with the general public after commencing a similar test project with government officers on May 26.

The department expects to issue 500 e-passports to government officers and another 500 to general citizens before the launch of the e-passports in August.

To accelerate the development of electronic government, the Office of Computer Clustering Programme (CCP) under the National Science and Technology Development Agency has initiated a project called New Enhanced Application Tools for e-Government (NEAT-G) to set interoperability standards for application software for electronic government.

Information and Communication Technology Minister Surapong Suebwonglee, as president of the E-Commerce Committee, said that in accordance with the act, the government must enact sub-legislation to define it in detail.

Registering businesses and paying taxes as well as utility bills can now be processed at www.ecitizen.go.th.

First-time users can log on with their 13-digit ID number, then the system will generate a username and password, which can be changed at any time by users.

Even though technology has been deployed in Thailand's healthcare industry for three decades, and despite the current government's ambitious policy to turn the country into a healthcare hub in Southeast Asia, the country has never had a strategy or a policy for establishing a solid national electronic healthcare (e-health) system. The Nation's Asina Pornwasin reports.

To make Thailand into a country where people can expect equality in receiving high-quality health and medical services no matter where they seek them, the country needs a distinguished national e-health policy as a framework for its investment in healthcare technology.

The Information and Communications Technology Ministry plans to launch an E-Government Road Map, as a framework for e-government developments over the five years from 2010 to 2014.

Deputy Permanent Secretary Angsumal Sumalai said a draft of the road map would be submitted to the Cabinet early next month for approval before being sent to all government agencies.

Thailand will make a historic step when the government begins issuing the first national smart ID cards at 1,077 offices this April when it will take a distributed approach to card production, a move that has been criticised by Gartner Inc., the company invited to offer advice on the mega-project.

Previously various government departments had their own GIS systems that were largely incompatible.

The national project was initiated by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra as part of plans for e-government and for better management of natural resources.

The National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) is stepping up its development of knowledge bases and intelligent tools to support its Healthy Thailand project, which is expected to be complete in 2018.

The aim of the project is to increase the awareness and monitoring of personal health issues and to generally improve the quality of life for Thai people on the basis of smart health and smart living.

The development of information and communication technology in Thailand in the next five years will help the country become "Smart Thailand" equipped with "Smart People" and a "Smart Government".

This is the goal of the country's second ICT master plan - for 2009 to 2013 - drafted by the National Electronic and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec).

After years of e-government initiatives and promises, the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) says it is ready to make chip-based smart cards.

The Intellectual Property Department is planning to develop an e-Patent system, allowing individuals and companies to apply for patent protection or access information on intellectual property rights via the Internet.

The director of the department's Patent Office, Seksant Boonsuwan said the e-Patent system would help the department keep documents on patents and petty patents in document image processing and image data entry form, and on digital files, so that it could provide e-services to the public and speed up access to information.

Raymond Chong, managing director and chief executive officer of the hospital, said the hospital would utilise AVR technology to send automatic voice messages to ODP patients over their mobile phones to advise them on the status of their appointments.