Nectec to focus on research and development

The National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) is to be re-organised, changing its role from that of a centre for government policy on information and communication technology to become a research and development centre.

Its primary aim will be to create new technology platforms to support local industry and government organisations.

Nectec director Pansak Siriruchatanapong said the agency would manage about 16 research and development laboratories working on the development of new technology platforms. These will include sensor, security, knowledge engineering and networking technologies and nano-electronics.

The goal will be to build Thailand's capabilities and support the private sector so that businesses will have new technology with which to create new commercial products and services.

Pansak said the reorganisation would take place next year and, in the process, the agency would create three main "flagship" projects. These will be called Digitised Thailand, Medical and Healthcare and Smart Farm.

The Digitised Thailand project will involve collaboration with local universities, communities, art and cultural centres and the Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa). It will aim to develop and transform local analog contents, including arts and culture, intellectual property and knowledge, into digital format. A digital archive and "e-museum" will then be created, providing a national archive that members of the public and students can access via digital networks.

Pansak said Digitised Thailand would allow private sector organisations to use new technologies to access local content for the creation of new products and services to support, for example, the tourism industry.

"The Digitised Thailand project will also enable younger-generation Thais to enter local content that will create an understanding of, and prompt learning about, new media such as animation and multimedia. The project will also teach them how to create new multimedia and animation contents as a basis for new jobs," he said.

Nectec's Medical and Healthcare project will involve development of a national medical metadata system, or Metadata Broker, which will allow the health insurance, social security and public health systems to access and transfer patient information from a database and create interoperability of information systems. This will enable the public health system to develop preventive healthcare programmes and increase the efficiency of treatments and services.

Pansak said a next step in this project would be the development of a healthcare device that would enable people to check their own state of health.

Under its Smart Farm project, Nectec will become responsible for the development of new agricultural technologies already under study by the Agricultural Land Reform Office's Cyber Brain project. These aim to help farmers to perfect organic farming techniques, to increase their farm production and to manage their crops and products so that they are able to be tested. The project will also aim to provide farmers with new management tools such as soil information and advice on revitalising their environment via mobile phone short message system (SMS).

"We will try to develop new information technologies to reduce farmers' investment costs," Pansak said. "We will also help farmers to use information technology to develop the quality of both their crops and their lives."

The Nectec director said that amid the current economic slowdown, the agency would apply its information and communications technology skills in the human resources area by retraining people to support local industries. They would be given new skills in fields such as information and communications packaging and testing, electronic design, and automation.