The agency will also work with the Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion (OSMEP) to establish a Digital Content Incubation Centre to support IT start-up companies and SMEs.

Birasak Varasundharosoth, chairman of Sipa, said the agency will encourage the local software industry to increase its productivity and competitiveness in the international market.

Sipa hopes to produce 10,000 IT and computer professionals since Thailand has a lack of IT skills, especially computer engineers. The agency will also work with international agencies to develop local software to international standards so international agencies will transfer technology to local developers.

He said that software industry worldwide is worth US$750 billion (Bt25.4 trillion). Meanwhile, Thai software has only a 1-per-cent share of that total. The Thai software market normally has growth of around 17 to 18 per cent per year. The agency plans in the next several years to create various projects to double the market growth.

"Thailand should develop highly skilled people so they will be able to work in the international and regional markets which lack more than 200,000 computer engineers and embedded-system experts, particularly the US and Japan," said Birasak.

The agency will work with international government agencies such as those in Japan to train people and transfer technology to local developers and computer engineers in Thailand.

"Local developers should realise their potential so they can provide outsourcing services and develop outsourced products," said Birasak.

The agency will join with OSMEP to set up a Digital Content Incubation Centre on Radchadamnung Road to encourage local developers to meet international market standards.

Jhitraporn Techacharm, director general of OSMEP, said the Incubation Centre will be launched in the next few months, with OSMEP providing the network, matching funds and infrastructure to facilitate start-up companies and SMEs.

In the first year the centre will create a pilot model to support 10 local companies. OSMEP also believes the IT market and the software market in Thailand have high growth potential and both are crucial to support domestic and international markets.

"We try to produce high-quality staff in local software companies so they will become competitive with international companies," said Jhitraporn.

Rungruang Limchoopatipa, an executive at Sipa, said the centre will be a knowledge and information resource for IT entrepreneurs and SMEs. The agency will provide consultancy, training, technical support and electronic media. It will also encourage collaboration amongst local software developers.

"We will work together to promote local software companies and local developers and create opportunities to help them compete with international companies, especially in the digital-content industry," said Rungruang.

The agency will also join with the Education Ministry to set up the Robot Camp to familiarise students with innovation and technology, and private companies to develop and package software to support the local market. He said the agency also believed that open-source software is a crucial area and it would encourage local users to apply technology to support and promote open-source software in the country.

Jirapan Boonnoon

The Nation