Digital industry to contribute 30% of GDP by 2027: ONDE
The Office of the National Digital Economy and Society Commission (ONDE) is predicting that Thailand’s digital industry will contribute as much as 30% of the country’s gross domestic product by 2027, adding that next year it intends to focus on promoting cloud-based infrastructure to ensure achievement of this target.
ONDE secretary-general Putchapong Nodthaisong on Wednesday announced the office’s operational strategy for 2024, saying that it would fully support the “Go Cloud First” policy of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DES).
The policy focuses on allowing private cloud providers, both domestic and international, to establish cloud infrastructure in Thailand. Examples include INET, AWS, Microsoft and Huawei.
He said ONDE will be responsible for setting standard prices for cloud services across four categories before putting its proposal to the DES board and the cabinet for approval.
The four types of cloud services are: Cloud for security of information infrastructure; cloud for government information and public services, cloud for data storage, and cloud for high-level data analytics.
Putchapong said a preliminary survey indicates that government agencies will need around 800,000 VM (virtual machines) to provide comprehensive cloud services across all categories.
However, the government cloud project has always been underfunded at around 1.1 billion baht per year, which only allows it to achieve half of the target of adding 25,000 VM per year from 2023-2025, he added.
By allowing private operators to provide VM to government cloud services, ONDE is confident that the target of 800,000 VM could be achieved.
Putchapong added that next year the office would also encourage subdistrict hospitals across the country to store and manage their data on a standardised cloud system to ensure data security and fast response in case of emergency.
The service will link with the central medical cloud system allowing hospitals and medical practitioners to exchange patient information and research data to improve the country’s healthcare services, he said.
