Information Technology: the Challenges ahead Information Technology: the Challenges Ahead Tony Waltham Business leaders in Thailand's IT sector firmly point to shortcomings in infrastructure - citing high telecommunications charges in particular - and criticise the Government for a lack of leadership and support for technology as well as for not being a leading user of IT itself. When asked what can be done to help promote information technology in Thailand, these businessmen also cited several national issues that span the gamut from the lack of standards for the Thai character set to the low priorities both for teaching English and technology in schools. A good command of English is seen as being essential today in order for Thais to compete in a global marketplace and especially for anyone looking to a career in IT. The lack of sufficient graduates with IT skills is another shortcoming that Thailand faces, while the relatively high cost of accessing the Internet, red tape at Customs and lax enforcement of copyright laws have all been cited as preventing the country from realising its full potential in the realm of technology. But it is the lack of top-down leadership where technology is concerned that is the most frequently cited challenge that the industry faces. All the other key issues fail to get addressed in a meaningful way as a result of this. Without a national commitment to information technology that recognises its importance for national development and national competitiveness, Thailand is unlikely to resolve the many fundamental obstacles that slow down its uptake of the technology or make it too expensive for most people to afford. It must also be said that the economic crisis that followed the flotation of the baht in the middle of 1998 could not have come at a worse time, leading as it did to massive cutbacks in government spending, and causing the suspension or curtailment of many official IT projects. Indeed, some businessmen here suggest that waiting for the government to take action is hopeless - even arguing that official incentives can backfire - and that, instead, we should make the best of the private sector resources that we have. Thailand does have several things going for it when it comes to IT. Thais readily adapt to state-of-the-art technology rather than sticking with "safe" but less efficient alternatives. Fast learners, Thais appear to have the ability to adapt their skills to new technology very rapidly. In addition, the country's geographical location is good, being in the centre of the region with neighbouring countries such as Vietnam and Burma as potential markets. Indeed, with a population of 60 million, the domestic market here offers economies of scale and provides a big consumption base for localised software. Thailand also has a committed government agency working to promote IT use, the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec), now just over 10 years old that has many achievements to its name. Nectec, which is under the Ministry of Science and Technology, is actively involved in the Software Park project which finally won approval last year and which now has many international IT firms investing in it. Senior officials of the agency have also been actively involved in the National IT Committee and have been responsible for drafting the "IT 2000" National IT Policy. Unfortunately, Nectec does not have the elevated status of an agency such as the Board of Investment and while it can contribute to national policy statements, it is up to the relevant ministries involved and the Cabinet to follow through on proposals. If we take a closer look at the challenges that Thailand faces in becoming a serious player in the global technology marketplace, the problem areas can be broken down into telecommunications and Internet/network access; shortcomings in the Thai education system; the Government's failure to embrace IT as a user; and legal problems caused both by outdated laws or regulations as well as the lack of laws for electronic commerce. Without a national commitment to information technology that recognises its importance for national development and national competitiveness, Thailand is unlikely to resolve the many fundamental obstacles that slow down its uptake of technology or make it too expensive for most people to afford. Telecommunications and the Internet President of EDS' Asia Pacific Region Edward Yang Thailand has traditionally levied high charges for access to data networks and the access to international circuits is jealously guarded by one of the state-run Government profit centres, the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT). Full credit for pioneering the Internet here should go to Nectec and some universities that were involved here who introduced it as an network for academic and research purposes, while making free access available to the public back in 1993. This paved the way for commercial Internet provision in 1995, but the CAT has insisted from the beginning on having a one-third shareholding in all the ISPs here and has generally been influential in determining the access charges, which for dial-up access are considerably more expensive than most neighbouring countries. Leased line charges here are even higher. To the ISPs' credit, most major provincial towns outside Bangkok now have a local number that users can call to access the Net, but a more pressing problem exists in that telephone lines to homes or even businesses outside the major provincial centres are virtually non-existent. This, more than any other factor, will limit the penetration of any data network to the masses for now. The need for Thailand to make a concerted effort to get on the Internet superhighway was highlighted in a recent interview in Database by EDS President for Asia Pacific Edward Yang. He said that Thailand needed to take advantage of the digital economy that existed today and would grow very rapidly - or else local businesses risked losing customers and the whole country would wake up one day to find it was a long way behind. Either the Government or industry must enable the Internet to a broader audience and promote it and help people to use it to avoid such a fate, he said, cautioning of a risk that Thai products would no longer be purchased by people because they would be buying them from someone else on the Internet who was giving them better value - or that Thais might not be able to sell what they were good at because they did not get on the Internet. In the information age, the "highways" are no longer paved with asphalt or set in concrete. Rather, they are made of glass fibre or copper. Back in 1995, the National IT Policy called IT 2000 was introduced, containing a recommendation that the country embark on a five-year rural Thailand communications expansion and modernisation programme, with one specific goal: to install telephone lines to no less than 12,000 remote tambons and villages with over 6,000 million baht a year for five years so as to provide nationwide universal service by the year 2000. Highlighting the highway metaphor, the policy statement went on to point out: "Such an investment compares as negligible to the overall budget merely to upgrade highways across the nation into a four-lane network," the National IT Policy statement commented. However, it might be worth considering that a photograph of a minister cutting a ribbon to open a new highway makes for better PR _ and potentially more votes next time around _ than an optical fibre network buried in the ground somewhere would. And this may prove to be a fundamental part of the challenge. 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