Euromoney hosted The Greater Mekong Investment forum 2018, analyzing CLMV investment trends and the growth of Thai capitals and businesses under Thailand 4.0

Wednesday 13 June 2018 17:04
Euromoney Asia organized The Greater Mekong Investment forum 2018, focusing on Thailand 4.0 and the country's potential to be the Mekong sub-regions' center for trade and technology. The event, organized on 7 June 2018, brought international financial experts, start-ups business representatives and digital talents from around the globe, with the support of Euromoney who is an expert for international businesses and economic analyists which has organized international conferences in over 60 countries with in the past 48 years.

Pichet Durongkaveroj, Minister of Digital Economy and Society, said during the forum's open ceremony that Thailand was implementing the "Digital Agenda 2018" which would focus on five areas such as expanding digital infrastructure, building human capacity, increasing digital self-reliance, enhancing cyber security and improving government's efficiency in facilitating digital economy. Currently, Thai government is progressing three legislation such as digital development law, electronic transaction law and cyber security law.

"Thailand is transforming with digital technology playing a large part, not only in a part of economic front but also in creating inclusiveness among populations," said Mr Pichet.

By its rapid economic growth, the Greater Mekong Region has been eyed by international investors. Under the 2017 framework of the Greater Mekong Sub-region countries, around 66-68 projects were mentioned in investment favors. About 88-89 per cent of those projects were transportation projects. Five per cent were energy-related projects. The figure shows that infrastructure investment including in telecommunication sector is the economic-driven key of the region.

Dhanant Subhadrabandhu, Senior Executive Vice President, Business and Service of CAT Telecom, said Thai government had invested over 700 US dollar to build telecommunication infrastructure in Thailand. CAT has planned to expand international capacity of Thai telecommunication to support the growth of bandwidth demand in future. CAT has launched submarine cables, known as Asia Pacific Gateway, to link connections of Thailand and Asia-Pacific countries. The project has installed bandwidth technology with high-speed data rate, the highest capacity of bandwidth ever installed in Thailand. These are the efforts to push ward digital hub in Thailand, of which connection networks will link to international countries."

"Digital Park is one of the state projects that drive Thailand's digital transformation. Some business innovations and services have been applied within Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) to support its growth. The EEC will create a connection gateway to international countries with submarine cables that link connections of Thailand to Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. CAT is also piloting smart city project in Phuket. Some technology and IoT networks have been installed in the project to collect and develop data of Phuket city. The information obtained in the project will be used for the designation and development of tourist spots. Wifi hot spots have been provided through the city, which also used to develop public works and enhance businesses and services in the city. There will be more Big Data during the digital transformation from increasing of IoT technology and devices. Therefore, Thai government is trying to manage Big Data and open its data to public. This will allow private sector to use the data to understand consumer behaviors and improve their services."

Mentioned in the forum, global and regional investors have concerned over 3 issues; unemployment rate, aging society and Thailand's capacity on innovation and digital development. Some business experts suggested that Thai government should have modernized its laws and regulations to create supportive environment for start-ups and innovations. The country is also needed to improve educational system to increase innovation and digital capacity of young generations. Moreover, financial institute representatives suggested that building digital economy in Thailand required improvement of electronic transactions and digital commerce. CAT is very confident in taking a major role in building digital infrastructure to support the growth of digital economy.

"To integrated Thailand with global economy and to promote Thailand 4.0, we are laying foundations in many dimensions to prepare Thailand and businesses for digital transformation," said Dr Dhanand.