Kingdom has “smart nation” potential for an efficient public sector and e-govt, say experts
MOVING TOWARDS a Digital Thailand, Intel aims to provide the consultative support and services in designing the technology blueprint that can drive the development of this ambition. It believes this goal can be achieved through several collaborative opportunities.
Prakash Mallya, managing director for Southeast Asia, Intel Corporation, said his company believes Thailand has the potential to become a smart nation once certain issues have been resolved or upgraded - such as the development of its infrastructure, connectivity and digital literacy.
The beauty of being a smart nation is that it can help Thailand increase the efficiency of its public sector and its ability to provide public services, particularly through e-government. Improved digital literacy among Thai people can also contribute towards improving business operations and revenue generation, leading in the long run to an increase in the gross domestic product (GDP).
"Ultimately, a smart nation can dramatically enhance the wellbeing and livelihoods of Thai people, through the implementation of smart transportation (less traffic), smart agriculture (higher yields + improved income) or smart healthcare (better medical services)," said Mallya.
For example, Intel collaborated with the Singaporean government to improve the local ecosystem and initiated the Partnership in Capability Transformation (PACT) project to help local SMEs build solutions to healthcare issues.
Also, Intel inaugurated "Invent 50", together with the Singaporean government, to encourage young people to invent tech solutions to local social or environmental issues. Finally, Intel worked with Abbaco in Malaysia to provide consultative support and an Intel-based gateway for the development of smart water management.
"We can do similar approaches in Thailand, with Thailand-specific players to build a local ecosystem," said Mallya.
He added that Intel's vision is to adopt digital and smart technology towards nation building through six pillars the government: infrastructure development in the country, social development, manpower and talent, and human capital development as well as smart technology, end to end deployment towards a nation building outcome.
"The government's current vision is very articulate and very well-thought through. It also has the key elements based on technology available today to make the best impact towards creating a prosperous, high income and connected nation. Intel is very keen to support this vision. We have engaged with the government across multiple areas. We have an opportunity now to engage all of these areas (six pillars) to convert the vision or the ambition towards the real progress of the nation," said Mallya.
Developing the "Infrastructure" pillar of Digital Thailand will help improve connectivity around the country, which is the most important factor in propelling a Digital Thailand vision.
Connectivity affects all other pillars.
In his view, in Thailand, the connectivity is improving and the computing capacity of smart devices reaches the stage where many devices have acceptable computing capability. The combination of great computing capability on devices and great connectivity in the country provides an opportunity for Thailand to use those technologies to transform business performance and to improve the quality of life of its citizens.
"We believe that local eco-system development will be the key to bringing Digital Thailand into fruition. Intel would like to support and consult proactively to bring this vision into reality, and we have worked closely with the ICT Ministry and government agencies to provide them with input. Intel is a platform company. Our architecture can be used for any solutions, whether it is smart agriculture, transportation, or healthcare. We are ready to work with the public sector as a technology adviser or consultant to help them build the local ecosystem," said Mallya.
Thailand is the biggest producer of rice globally. It is also a tourism country with an economy depending on visitors. Thailand also has cities that are growing bigger and where transportation is a challenge.
"You also have the situation across the entire country where smart technologies around agriculture are becoming important, outside of rice. So many of these factors contemplate if we were to build smart technology-based solutions end-to-end, it could really impact the life of farmers, citizens, businesses - especially small and medium enterprises," said Mallya.
One winning project sought a solution to help Parkinsons's disease patients. These patients sometimes freeze involuntarily due to brain malfunction and fall and get injured. As a result, the students created a combination of sensors using an Intel Galileo platform, connected to the back-end system, to help predict when these patients would 'freeze' again and help prevent injuries.
"We recognise that a lot of the local ecosystem today is contributed by solutions from youth. So we need to create a "Maker" mentality in societies, including Thailand. We would like to build a Maker platform to help strengthen each pillar of Digital Thailand with new solutions created by Thai people for Thai people. We are continuing to work with the government to make this happen," said Mallya.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Asina Pornwasin
Quelle/Source: The Nation, 03.05.2016
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