Suwipa Wanasathop, director of Software Park Thailand, said the park planned to provide infrastructure services while strengthening the Thai software industry. It will also offer business matching.

For the infrastructure services, she said Software Park facilitated local software developers to start a software business.

"We hope to be the first door to open for their software business and help them expand locally and internationally," she said.

The park also cooperates with international software companies to set up excellence centres to transfer technology to local software developers.

To strengthen the Thai software industry, Software Park also provides professional training courses to enable local skills to reach international standards. It also developed the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) project to push local software developers to achieve world-class standards.

CMMI is a process improvement approach that provides organisations with the essential elements of effective processes. It not only helps evaluate the content of processes - information essential to technical support and managerial activities - but also improves process performance - information used to increase the capability of an organisation's activities.

The standard has been shown to reduce risks associated with development projects, increase efficiency, and improve the overall quality of products. Having this standard will also guarantee the quality of software development.

Suwipa said in the first stage, the park planned to push at least 10 local software companies to get CMMI certification from Carnegie Mellon University.

As a result, Thai software companies will be able to develop improved software to meet international standards.

"Software Park tries to enable local software companies to attain international standards by providing funds, consultation and training so that they can compete in the international market. It creates business opportunities for them," said Suwipa.

The park also offers business matching for application of local software development in business sectors, including logistics, food, textiles, automotive and tourism industries.

 "We will act as a middleman to help bridge the requirements of the two sides, while encouraging local businesses to use local software," she said.

The park will enable local software developers and companies to expand their markets - both domestic and international - in terms of pro-active and aggressive action to push Thai software development companies towards being real players by providing a window to the world market.

Thai developers have the potential to develop mobile applications, industry specific software, business process outsourcing and digital content for the international market.

She said in 2005, Thailand's software industry was valued at Bt41.43 billion with an annual growth of about 20 per cent, but the country still imported software accounting for about 70 per cent of the total market value.

It is hoped that the country will be able to increase the proportion of export software in future.

Jirapan Boonnoon

The Nation