Industry analysts agree the premier is likely to pay more attention to national information and communication technology (ICT) policy because of her experience in the telecom field.
Ms Yingluck has served as president of Advanced Info Service, founded by deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who is also her elder brother.
"Apart from the party's One Tablet per Child campaign and free public WiFi, many innovative technology projects are likely to be seen," said the party source who asked not to be named.
He said Ms Yingluck floated the idea to build more internet data centres (IDCs) in key areas nationwide to extend computing infrastructure capacity and support e-government services to citizens.
IDCs could help citizens with smart ID cards to access different state agencies. The smart ID card was a project of Thaksin.
"3G projects on both existing frequencies through inband migration and the new 2100 Megahertz spectrum could also be accelerated under Premier Yingluck," he said.
The new ICT minister, Anudith Nakornthap, is also expected to reorganise all telecom concessions and resolve existing legal disputes.
The source said CAT Telecom would play a crucial role in supporting Ms Yingluck's IDC plan. The state telecom enterprise's president, Jirayuth Roongsrithong, has a close relationship with her party. Mr Jirayuth's wife is a sister of Sitha Tiwaree, a banned politician backed by Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, a former key member of Thai Rak Thai who retains a strong influence in Pheu Thai though she is also banned from politics until next year.
CAT recently spent 265 million baht expanding its IDC facility. The improvements include shared web hosting, server co-location, a dedicated web server, a virtual private server and a disaster recovery centre.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Komsan Tortermvasana
Quelle/Source: Bangkok Post, 15.08.2011
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