Thailand's space master plan aims to nurture young talent and seek global collaboration
Thailand's Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Gistda) has unveiled its space master plan, aiming to tap its potential as a sustainable growth engine of the future.
In his opening remarks on Thursday at the international seminar titled "New Space Economy Thailand”, Pakorn Apaphant, executive director of the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Gistda), said that space technology has been the country's backbone for more than 50 years.
The two-day seminar was held on March 16-17.
“Unfortunately, most Thai people believe that space technology is beyond their reach, despite the fact that it is technology that they experience every day, such as for communication, weather forecasting, mobile networks, navigation systems, and natural resource exploration and management,” he said.
He pointed out that as the world faces more challenges and uncertainties, innovation and technology were needed to explore more sustainable solutions. Space technology will be an important tool to help many countries find the right solutions, he said.
A key element of future Thai economy
Pakorn said that he believes space will be Thailand's new economy, not only helping the country create new job opportunities and new sources of revenue, but also assisting the country in dealing with all difficulties in a more sustainable way.
The purpose of this national space master plan is to emphasise the importance of space technology, encourage the young generation to pursue studies in this field, and demonstrate Thailand's readiness to collaborate with other countries in developing space technology and become a part of the global value chain.
He said the seminar was just one step in the process of promoting Thailand's space economy ecosystem.
Sessions on developing new space ecosystems and fostering the global aerospace value chain for the future of the planet were part of the event.
Participants from industry, startups, policymakers, funding institutions, and academia discussed the commercial space segment targeting both domestic and international markets at various stages of the value chain and subsystem supply during the seminar.
Pakron disclosed that Gistda had collaborated with the National Innovation Agency (NIA) to organise an incubation programme for Thai startups in the space economy.
Pun-Arj Chairatana, executive director of the NIA, said the goal of this collaboration was to ensure that Thailand had enough companies, know-how, and talent for international firms to work with when they want to enter the space industry in the Asia-Pacific region.
Cooperation, not competition
He made it clear that Thailand did not wish to compete, but would rather participate in the global space economy.
The research is still being conducted at the national collaboration level.
"We can all be parties in co-developing space technology," he said, emphasising that Thailand had no political or hidden agenda, only the benefit of all parties involved.
The honorary president of Czech Space Alliance and one of the seminar panellists said that space technology is currently focusing on how to find appropriate cooperation with each other in order to move forward and tackle together global crises such as climate change.
“No cooperation, no space technology,” he said, citing a common expression used in the space industry.
He also expressed gratitude to Thailand for hosting the event and expressed a desire to expand collaboration with Thai entrepreneurs in areas such as rocket spare parts, monitoring software, and drone detection.
