Developers' paradise, Software Park Phuket opens its doors

Software Park Phuket : Developers’ paradise

The park is owned and operated by a private firm called Blue Lagoon (Thailand), a subsidiary of Phuket property company, Anuphas Group.

It aims to enable Phuket's tourism and hospitality industries to improve their services with the use of software and technology, as well as attracting foreign software developers to set up operations in Phuket, said Software Park Phuket director Kongkiat Kespechara.

"Phuket is ready for this software park, and is aiming high to become a software development centre comprising many global firms. Phuket has two main attributes to support the park: a high-speed telecommunication network around the island and three institutes producing 200 graduated technical students year," he said.

The park, which occupies 10 rai of land, will have three main features: rental space, an incubation centre and a research and development centre.

In its initial phase, following investment of about Bt25 million, the park will have 1,250 square metres of floor space in a three-storey building. It aims to recruit around 10 software firms as tenants.

"Currently, three software companies - Phuket Software Factory, Open Source Technology and International Medical Software - are contracted tenants," Kongkiat said.

Phuket currently has about 30 software firms and after Software Park Phuket opens its doors that number is expected to rise rapidly by at least another 10.

In its second phase over the coming year, the capacity of the park's rental space will increase to 6,000 square metres as the buildings expand upwards.

The main features of the park's incubation centre will be facilities and services for incubating new enterprises. These will include business consultancy, marketing services and business matching.

The centre will aim mainly to incubate ventures based on service-oriented architecture (SOA), with the hope of encouraging local software firms to develop plug-in software applications for tourism and hospitality services.

"We will try to lead software development for the tourism and hospitality industry," Kongkiat said. "We will guide and incubate ventures utilising SOA technology to develop software that can be plugged into existing applications - for example, the development of a face-recognition application, by using SOA, to help improve tourism services."

He said that in its first phase, the operations of the incubation centre would be partially supported by Science Park Thailand. As well, support in setting up and operating the Phuket incubation centre would come from Software Park Thailand, with the same set of services as those offered in the Bangkok park, including training curricula and lecturers.

In its research and development centre, Software Park Phuket will provide a software-testing lab for local open-source developers as well as those from around the world.

"We will provide tools and facilities such as a server and network to attract open-source software developers from around the world to come here. We hope to build a community of developers by leading them to set up development centres in Phuket," he said.

Software Park Phuket's R&D centre will also provide facilities for software firms developing disaster-management solutions. In this service, the park will join with the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)'s Inter Lab.

The park is currently seeking a joint venture partner for its second phase, in which its rental space will be expanded to more than 6,000 square meters in a seven-storey building.

Work is scheduled to begin on the second phase in the first quarter of next year, for completion before an official launch in October 2009.

"We need investment of about Bt100 million for the second phase, so we need partners who have know-how and skills in management and marketing. We are happy to consider both local and foreign partners," Kongkiat said.

Since Software Park Phuket is a member of the Asia Oceania Software Park Alliance and it will be one of the hosts of the International Software Park Forum 2009, the park plans to kick off its second phase at that event.