The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Ministry is vowing to see Thailand's Networked Readiness Index (NRI) ranking sharply improve to 34th in 2015 from 74th this year.
The country's e-government ranking is also expected to improve to 15th from 20th.
The NRI, which measures a country's ICT competitiveness, put Thailand at 77th worldwide in 2012, 59th in 2011 and 37th in 2006.
Permanent secretary Surachai Srisaracam said the government is gearing up to promote Thailand as an ICT hub for the Greater Mekong Subregion by 2015 ahead of the Asean Economic Community late that year.
The master plan for 2014-18 is aimed at improving Thailand's ICT ranking by developing smart ICT infrastructure in both state and private organisations.
Mr Surachai said the ICT Ministry will continue forging ahead with plans to improve connectivity and mobility access to lift the country's competitiveness.
"We're also promoting 'smart communities' under the Smart Thailand 2020 campaign aimed at educating the public to use ICT to improve their living standards and business competitiveness," he said.1
Plans for free public high-speed broadband network and WiFi service in all communities nationwide remain on track, with a focus on the education, healthcare and farm sectors.
Thailand has 140,000 WiFi access points at 30,000 locations through collaboration between state and private telecom companies.
Mr Surachai said the ICT Ministry will add 150,000 more WiFi access points in 2014 at a cost of 950 million baht, funded by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.
The two state telecoms _ TOT Plc and CAT Telecom _ plan to boost their fixed-based broadband network to 2 million ports nationwide by 2015 and 5 million by 2018.
Thailand's telecommunications infrastructure now covers 87% of the population and is expected to reach 95% in 2020.
Mr Surachai said "smart governments" are under development in collaboration between state departments and communities.
Trirat Chatkaew, director of the Software Industry Promotion Agency, said the organisation is supporting the local software and app industries to serve the growing number of mobile and internet users.
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Quelle/Source: Bangkok Post, 27.12.2013
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