Chanitr Charnchainarong, president of MAI, said the MAI's decisions will drive industry as a whole so the businesses will be able to create competitiveness in local and international markets.

In the first stage, the MAI will support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and local software companies so they will more easily find partners and venture capital funding, both domestically and internationally.

The agency will facilitate meetings with local software companies so they will able to expand their businesses.

It will also encourage the government and private sector to use local software.

"We will provide a venture capital mechanism for efficiently-run businesses with good potential so as to increase their prospects for eventual listing. This will create a continuously replenishing pool of companies with the potential to list, and perpetually increase the number of listed companies on the MAI," said Chanitr.

He added the MAI will also create an understanding of accounting and its role in business. IRC and Atec Computer are already members of the MAI.

Anukul Tamprasit, president of the Association of the Thai Software Industry, said the total Thai software industry this year will be worth Bt40 billion, with import software and services 60 per cent and domestic software 40 per cent.

He said the ATSI will also encourage local software companies to develop enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to support retail, travel and manufacturing to help business and industry reduce the cost of software investment and management.

Jirapan Boonnoon

The Nation

jirapan@nationgroup.com