Pansak Siriruchatapong, president of Tesa, said the association would utilise networks of government agencies, businesses and universities, to set up centres at universities so they will develop pilot research and development projects to support commercial demand. The centres will train students at the universities to support the embedded-system industry.

The association plans in the first step to set up three centres - at Kasetsart University, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang and Prince of Songkla University - to develop embedded systems to support various industries such as agriculture. To develop a competitive electronics industry in the country, Pansak said developers should differentiate products and reduce costs to develop innovative products.

The association plans to train people in embedded systems as they relate to consumer electronics products, as well as the automotive and microelectronics industries.

Tesa will initially work with the Software Information Promotion Agency (Sipa) to develop certification based on a Japanese standard. This will create confidence and attract international businesses such as Toyota.

"If foreign businesses invest and transfer their manufacturing to Thailand, they will provide technology transfer to local developers and this will enhance local skills," said Pansak.

Tesa and Sipa will set up embedded-system curricula at 30 universities nationwide to encourage students to study embedded-system technology. Through this they hope to produce 1,000 students a year to support the industry with a total of 5,000 embedded-system engineers in the next five years.

"We want to develop the electronics industry so it will encourage foreign companies to set up in Thailand and create offshore industries," said Pansak. 

Jirapan Boonnoon

The Nation