Agency plans big spending to boost Thai industry

The National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) says it intends to become a solution provider in the next five years, and is planning to spend Bt3.4 billion this year to use science and technology to boost the competitiveness of Thai business and industry.

The agency's president, Sakarindr Bhumiratana, said the NSTDA planned to transfer technologies to industries, provide new research and development "from the shelf" to commercial enterprises and offer customised research and development to all kinds of business and industries.

It will also increase the potential benefits of science and technology to Thailand by setting up an "excellence and development of technology network". The network will use research and development to solve the problems of businesses and industries in order to create competitiveness, increase productivity and add value for the benefit of the country.

Sakarindr said the agency had a budget of Bt3.4 billion this year. Half of this will be spent on promoting research and development, 40 per cent on technology transfer and human resource development and 10 per cent on operation management.  

He said the NSTDA planned to adopt a cluster approach to enhancing research and development in six industry groups that were supplying both the domestic and export markets. The six clusters are textiles and chemicals, food and agriculture, medical and public healthcare, software, microchips and microelectronics, automotive and transportation, and energy and environment.

This approach will help businesses and industries to reduce their investments in research and development, enhance their production processes and provide business opportunities.

"We will focus on using our more than 600 patents 'from the shelf' to transfer knowledge to the private sector to develop new commercial products and services. Last year, 100 of our patents were able to be used in the development of new products and services and this year we expect that 30 of them will be used similarly. We also expect to register 200 new patents by the end of this year," Sakarindr said.

The agency will join private-sector and government organisations in the use of new technology and innovation to support local business. It will also help to 'train the trainers' in order to transfer knowledge and develop ICT-skilled human resources to enhance productivity and capacity.  

The agency also plans to establish a "Garden of Innovation" at Science Park to support new science and technology entrepreneurs in the establishment of commercial enterprises. It will be a temporary incubation centre with 20 units to support about 20 new entrepreneurs who seek the NSTDA's help. The agency currently has 30 companies "in incubation" at Science Park. They normally stay there at least three months, but less than a year.  

"We want to support new science and technology entrepreneurs who want to use the NSTDA's technology to develop new products and services. [With the addition of the Garden of Innovation], we will have a total of 50 new enterprises setting up their businesses in the park every year," he said.

The agency is also cooperating with the SME Bank to support and encourage the use of technology among small- and medium-sized enterprises to enhance their business processes, human resources and productivity.

Meanwhile, the agency is also splitting off potential research and development units to join four new private-sector ventures. The first, the Design and Engineering Consulting Service Centre, will involve the transfer to the education sector of a complex calculation tool called the Finite Element Method, used in civil, aeronautical and mechanical engineering, and related computer-aided engineering technologies.

The second is a DNA laboratory set up by the National Science and Technology Institute to promote research and development in the private and government sectors. The laboratory will specialise in DNA fingerprinting and diagnosis, including DNA marker development, DNA sequencing and genetically modified organism detection. Several seed companies have already used the service for DNA fingerprinting of their plant varieties.

Third is the Internet Innovation Research Centre, TrueHit, and fourth is the Thai Computer Emergency Response Team, which is one of many computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) set up around the world. The team will respond to incidents involving computer system or networks and cooperate with related organisations.