In the continuing transition to a digital economy, the Thailand government will set aside another 3 billion baht (US$96 million) this year to finance digital development across six different areas in 2021.
Those projects include plans to apply digital technology to promote education among youth, the elderly and the workforce, as well as building up an IT network in hospitals nationwide to provide better medical services.
Under the digital development plans, the government also aims to use digital technology to promote the agriculture sector and increase the value of products, generating more income for farmers. Digital technology will also be applied to upgrade government services.
In a related initiative, the National Digital Economy and Society Committee meeting was held in late March to approve 500 million baht (US$16 million) from the Digital Economy Fund to develop nine pilot projects using 5G technology. These projects include smart farming, smart water management and smart city development in selected provinces, and two schemes to encourage the private sector to embrace 5G.
The Digital Economy Fund was established in 2017 to upgrade Thailand's telecom infrastructure using seed money from the government and funding from the government's annual budget.
