The Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a trade group for Austrian tech companies to ramp up technology exchange and drive smart city development. The MoU was signed as part of the launch of “Austrian Technology Days Southeast Asia 2022”, a three-day online event aimed to promote Austrian tech for the ASEAN market, which concluded on 20 January 2022.
The President and Chief Executive of Depa stated that the agency plays a critical role in promoting smart city development across seven dimensions: environment, economy, energy, mobility, living, people and governance. The agency was tasked with establishing guidelines and recommendations for Thai smart city roadmaps and blueprints as the secretariat of the National Steering Committee on Smart City Development.
In 2018, Urban Innovation Vienna, a think tank and smart city development agency, worked with Depa to organise a smart city framework development workshop to bring its best practices to Thailand. A commercial counsellor from the Austrian Embassy in Thailand said Austrian cities have been consistently recognised as among the world’s smartest and most liveable cities, particularly Vienna. Depa and the tech company trade group will work together to raise public awareness about the digital economy and its ecosystem as well as smart city development by forming a network of key stakeholders and interested parties.
Moreover, Depa plans to push ahead with joint pilot projects and a proof-of-concept project on improving the industrial competitiveness of both countries, he said. In the coming years, Depa is confident the collaboration will be effective and fruitful, the Depa President said. Depa also outlined its missions in 2022, including a list of digital services for government procurement, the dVenture programme aimed at accelerating the growth of start-ups through its public and private network, smart city ambassadors, a food delivery platform, as well as its d-Station sales agent for start-ups’ products.
The Thai economy is still expected to grow 3.5%-4.5% this year driven by fiscal policy, exports and investment, despite an outbreak of the Omicron coronavirus variant remaining a challenge, the nation’s Finance Minister said recently. Growth in 2021 is estimated to come in at only 1%, as the vital tourism sector has yet to recover significantly, but the resumption of Thailand’s quarantine waiver for foreign tourists from next month should help, the Finance Minister said.
At the beginning of 2020, the enforcement of social distancing, lockdowns, and other measures led consumers to change their behaviour to online shopping, social media use, internet telephony for teleconferencing, and streaming of videos and films due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These trends resulted in spikes in online shopping businesses, especially in business-to-consumer (B2C) sales and business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce. The driving factors behind this growth are increased internet and mobile phone use, as well as improved logistics and e-payment systems, which heightened convenience and consumer confidence to shop online.
Thailand’s growing e-commerce market is focused on mobile applications, with an estimated mobile commerce market of $15.8 billion in 2020. The mobile commerce market is expecting a compound annual growth rate of 12% to $25 billion by 2023, driven by rising smartphone penetration (around 40%) and an established preference for mobile over desktop shopping.
The Thai government’s focus on its Thailand 4.0 policy includes allocating a budget for the specific purpose of constructing a broadband network for all villages across the country. This nationwide broadband network will help bridge the digital divide and promote modern economic development through eCommerce. The government also has a vision of creating the next generation of digital application platforms to accommodate and promote online activities, including e-marketplace, e-payments, and e-government. Eventually, the goal is for villagers to start doing eCommerce businesses for their local products and services.
