A review on article: The digital Thailand strategy and the ASEAN community

Introduction

Thailand has join as ASEAN members since end of 2015. The government and responsible agencies have created manu plans and strategies in onder to encourage Thailand economic development and gaining competitive advantage in the ASEAN environment. In 2016, Thailand have comeout few strategies and one of it is Thailand 4.0 Strategy (the Digital Strategy) as the main focus in Thailand’s ICT strategy. Thailand 4.0 is align to the Thailand 12th Social and Economic Development Plan (2017 – 2021) and the ASEAN ICT Master Plan.

The main aim is to drive Thailand economy into high-income country and to be as ASEAN regional centre. In this strategy Thailand plan to make the ICT as the foundation of of the country’s development. ICT is seen as an important element in Thailand growth and  development because of the ability to increase the efficiency and effectiveness  in stimulate and support most work areas.

The research

This study is to monitor and report the matters related to the development and the quality of ICT resources, infrastructure  system, higher education system, business sophistication and innovation. This study also identifying Thailand’s performance as compared to 9 other ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam). The outcome of this study can helps Thailand in improving their plans and strategies for Thailand development and competitive advantage.

This research reviewing 7 plans, strategies and policies to develop the theoretical framework for this research:

• The 12th Social Economic Development Plan
• Thailand 4.0 Strategy 
• ASEAN ICT Master Plan
• Thailand’s ICT policies
• Education System
• Organisation in Thailand
• Thailand Infrastructure

Based on the reviews, Thailand 4.0 strategy and World Economic Forum (WEF) is chosen to the the theoretical framework . The framework can be used to evaluate Thailand progress and performance against Thailand 4.0 strategies. This study also identify 5 related indicators that can effectively assessing and comparing countries performance.

• The infrastructure
• The higher education system
• Technology readiness
• Business sophistication
• Business innovation

This study used data and statistic derived from the Global Competitiveness Reports 2014 to 2017.

The research finding

Based on the data analysis, the research finding is explain in 5 pillars. Using the Global Competitive Index (GCI), the data collected is analysed. GCI consists of 12 pillar as presented in Figure 1. This study focus on the 5 selected pillars in GCI  sub-indexes which are infrastructure, higher education and training, technological readiness, business sophistication and innovation.

Thailand infrastructure development

Data from 3 consecutive year shows that overall performance of the infrasturcture in Thailand raised from fair to excellent in 2016. But declining to fair in 2017. No clear reason of declination. One aspect that declining from excellent to fair is mobile telephone subscription.

The higher education system

No significant improvement on the higher education system from 2015 – 2017. Based on GCI Thailand performance is rank as fair for all 3 consecutive years.

Technology Readiness

Overall Thailand rank as fair for technology readiness within 2015-2017. The only aspect rank as poor is percentage of internet users which rank as poor throughout the study period.

Business sophistication

For the study period, Thailand business sophistication is rank as excellent. Business sophistication is an indicator for the quality of country’s overall networks including business operations and strategies. It shows the level of efficiency in production of goods and services. This will affect the productivity and increase business and country competitiveness.  

Business innovation

Thailand’s business innovation is persistently rank as fair for the three study period. Business innovation capability is comprised of indicators on the less tangible aspects of idea generation, captured in the Interaction and diversity, as well as Research and development to develop inventions and Commercialisation the capacity to successfully bring innovation to the market sub-pillars.

Research Summary

Table 1 present the summary on findings. The ranking is categorise as Excellent, Fair and Poor.  It shows that, overall the ASEAN countries performance is led by Singapore, followed by Malaysia and third Thailand.

Thailand perform excellently in business sophistication and fair in other four indicators. This makes Thailand performance overall within the ASEAN countries quite competitive. Table 2 present the Thailand’s detail performance in 5 components in the theoretical framework for the 3 periods of analysis.

Reflection

The 5 indicators selected in this studies is part of 12 pillars in Global Competitiveness Index. These indicators are use to compare the performance and competitive advantage of ASEAN countries against each other.

In the 3 years analysis period (2015-2017), Thailand is rank as third competitive country over the 10 ASEAN country after Singapore and Malaysia. Having said that in global rank Singapore is at top 10 , and Thailand is rank at 43-63 for each indicators. Thailand need to strategies for significant improvements for all indicators to enhance the competitive advantage. For now Thailand strength in is Business Sophistication.

Thailand 4.0 is designed with 3 main aspect:

• building knowledge, technology, innovation and creativity in order to release the middle income trap
• building social security in order to drive the country forward with equality society focus
• building sustainability to balance economic development.

Thailand 4.0 is a very good initiative in enhancing Thailand competitiveness. This strategy articulate the intended direction clearly to all Thailand citizen. Thailand 4.0 objective area:

• Economic Prosperity: to create a value-based economy that is driven by innovation, technology and creativity.
• Social Well-being: to create a society that moves forward without leaving anyone behind (inclusive society) through realization of the full potential of all members of society.
• Raising Human Values: to transform Thais into “Competent human beings in the 21sth Century” and “Thais 4.0 in the first world.
• Environmental Protection: to become a liveable society that possesses an economic system capable of adjusting to climate change and low carbon society. The targets are to develop at least 10 cities into the world’s most liveable cities, reduce terrorism risk, and increase the proportion

However, there are indicators that highly driven by the government and agencies. For example higher education system and technology readiness. These two indicators have the lowest rank in Thailand performance. These two is developmental initiative that requires extra attention in order to improve the rank because it is rank as poor in the analysis period. 

In improving the higher education system, Thailand have include improvement in relation to Thailand 4.0. The education system in to be reformed using the an open education system approach. Leveraging on the ICT and internet, learning content can be access seamlessly by the teachers and the students. Adopting blended learning also a good strategies where the teaching and learning is conduct with facilitation which open the opportunity of personalisation in learning and stimulate effective learning.

Conclusion

Thailand rank in Global Competitiveness Index can be enhance with good planning and strategy from government, responsible agencies, businesses and citizen. Based on data analysed, Thailand is improving every year in most on the component. Which mean the strategies adopted in working. There are however, indicator that declining like mobile phone subscription under infrastructure component that might require initiative to understand why its happen.

References

• Thaiembdc.org. (2019). -Thailand 4.0-. [online] Available at: https://thaiembdc.org/thailand-4-0-2/ [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019].
• Wongwuttiwat, J,  Lawanna, A.  The digital Thailand strategy and the ASEAN community. E J Info Sys Dev Countries.  2018; 84:e12024. https://doi.org/10.1002/isd2.12024