(Bangkok) The US-ASEAN Business Council applauds the Thai Cabinet’s endorsement of the resolution by the Center for Economic Situation Administration (CESA) that, in principle, agrees with Thailand Board of Investment (BOI)’s investment promotion measures to ramp up the support of cloud-based services across both public and private sectors and upgrade digital infrastructure in Thailand. This move follows recommendations by bodies such as BOI and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) and is in line with trends already observed by the Thai public and private sectors in actively pushing the boundaries of digital transformation through cloud computing, as well as other digital innovations such as analytics, AI and machine learning.
As part of Thailand’s 4.0 national development plan, which seeks to promote the adoption and innovation of digital technologies to enhance the country’s competitiveness, the Thai government has now agreed in principle to the implementation of measures to promote investment in cloud service businesses and the promotion of the use of domestic digital infrastructure, especially data hosting service providers.
USABC also applauds MDES’ issuance of the Code of Practice guiding law enforcement to access data in the digital age on December 20, 2020. By ensuring there are laws and regulations in place to uphold public trust in Thailand’s new digital era, the Code of Practice, to an extent, provides law enforcement and national security agencies with clear and transparent legal mechanisms to access digital information pursuant to lawful process. Most importantly, this will protect citizens’ fundamental privacy rights, hold law enforcement agencies accountable, and respect the sovereignty of other nations.
“The opportunity for Thailand’s public sector to efficiently promote investment in these services relies on clear, proportionate, and feasible policies and regulations as they will help strengthen Thailand’s position as a leading, credible regional data center hub, boosting confidence among businesses and governments in the region of the security of data stored or processed in the country With the data center market in ASEAN forecasted to be worth up to USD 5.4 billion in 2024, Thailand can seize that opportunity and also leverage its position as one of the founding members of ASEAN to encourage the region to develop a unified approach on data governance policies in line with the goals of the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025 and the ASEAN Digital Data Governance Framework.”, said Amb. Ted Osius, President & CEO of the US-ASEAN Business Council.
In terms of the path forward for US-Thailand business relations, Amb. Osius added: “Thailand remains an important strategic partner for the US, with multinational companies keen to invest more in the country, particularly in the technology and digital services. The U.S. private sector stands ready to work together with the public agencies to help address the challenges and strongly support the implementation of efficient strategies and pragmatic framework to help Thailand make a meaningful step towards a trusted and responsible data economy in the long run.”
This move by the Thai government is in line with current and future trends for Thailand’s digital sphere, and better places Thailand in a position to emerge as a ‘smart nation’ and leader in ASEAN. Promoting big data and cloud computing, together with having modern, principled, and consistent regulatory framework on these digital areas, will not only help accelerate the country’s recovery from the pandemic, but will also improve security, attract investment, and unlock the country’s economic potential.
Source: US-ASEAN Business Council