A large portion of the country's economy is small and medium-sized enterprises that are struggling to access funding, ICT (information and communications technology) literacy, and literacy in the new context of business competition. Therefore, the government should take action to help SMEs' competitiveness with ICT.
Second, ICT can help address poverty. There is a huge income gap, and ICT can bridge this gap but it needs leaders who help people benefit from ICT equally throughout the nation, not only in Bangkok and other big cities.
To reform the country with ICT, the areas that the government should focus on include laws and regulations, for example micro payments; cellular and broadband Internet; and basic software. All these are the necessary foundations.
He said the key basic infrastructure was Internet broadband, which has been on the national agenda for many years, but still does not work adequately. Therefore, reform is needed in relevant government organisations.
"Reform needs to be across the economic, social, and educational sectors. This time, we need radical change, not incremental improvements. People need to be aware to reform themselves, while the country needs to be transformed in the line with the people's [needs]," Manoo said.
He added that the government's role was to collaborate with the private sector to provide SMEs with necessary infrastructure, laws and regulations. This is in the line with the ICT Ministry's other priorities including amending computer and e-commerce-related laws and improving the financial performance of state telecommunication enterprises.
According to ICT Minister Pornchai Rujiprapa, the ministry was considering bringing the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre, currently under the Science and Technology Ministry, under the ICT Ministry. There was a report that the ICT Ministry would change its name to the Digital Ministry, but this has been not officially confirmed.
Manoo added that the ICT industry itself needed to reform in order to be sustainable and to support the country's reform. For example, cloud computing is expected to the platform for reform, so software needs to be designed and developed to be able to run on the cloud. As new software is needed, software companies have to reform themselves first.
"We should not be promoting the [ICT] industry but need to promote the end-users who are enabled by ICT. The strategy is to let end-users lead the [ICT] industry through their needs and requirements," he said.
Robert Fox, chairman of the ICT group in the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Thailand, said reform was only important if it was going to make a positive difference to the economy and people's lives.
His recommendation is that the telecom industry, for example, needs some structural reforms to be more efficient, effective, and innovative. And this is a part of the digital economy. What is needed is a strong regulator responsible for licensing all telecom operators, along with reform in the state enterprises, and the liberation of the telecom industry in terms of innovation and competition.
If a digital economy is to become a reality, it needs a trusted Internet supported by data-protection laws, a broadband backbone, e-government and so on.
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Quelle/Source: The Nation, 23.09.2014
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