ICT Ministry's five policies to give Thais a knowledge based society

The five areas are the Universal Service Obligation (USO), or the promotion of equal telecom accessibility; ICT human-resources improvement; online security; using ICT as a tool to generate vital revenue for the country; and as a tool to improve the education system.

ICT minister Mun Patanotai announced the focus on the policies yesterday. They are part of the second-phase National ICT Master Plan (2009 to 2013), scheduled to be officially announced by the end of this month.

Mun added that the master plan was aimed at turning the country into "Smart Thailand" equipped with "Smart People" and a "Smart Government".

The master plan focuses on encouraging 50 per cent of the population aged above 15 years to be more ICT literate and to use computers in all spheres of life. It aims to improve the country's competitiveness on the world stage from its current No-33 rank out of a total of 55 countries in one major survey.

It also aims to boost the contribution of the ICT industry to the country's gross domestic product to 20 per cent from 13.2 per cent last year.

"Thailand was ranked No 33 from a total of 55 countries around the world by the World Competitiveness Scoreboard. The country's mobile-phone penetration in 2007 was 28.3 per cent, totalling 47.2 million subscribers, while the 'Internet population' was around 9.3 million, of which nearly 1 million used broadband Internet," Mun said. He added these were the ministry's major achievements after just six years in existence.