Plea to add value to Thai products

A successful young researcher from Chulalongkorn University has made a plea for Thailand's manufacturers of IT products to give greater importance to research and development to add value to their products.

Duang-rudee Worasucheep, 36, an assistant professor in the university's Electrical Engineering Department, gave a clear example of what she was talking about.

She said Thai companies were producing discreet components for all lightwave transceivers used in optical communication systems. These were supplied to foreign firms, whose employees fixed the components on to boards according to their designs, and then the foreign companies sold the completed boards back to Thailand and other markets, with value added.

She said Thai manufacturers should learn to design the finished boards instead of producing only the discreet components.

"Given that we haven't got the know-how, and one day the foreign companies may decide to relocate their production lines to other countries with lower labour costs, what will happen to us?" Duang-rudee asked.

To be able to design circuit boards for optical communication systems, Thailand needs to build up a strong team of experts with know-how and research and development support.

"If not, we'll continue to ask the same question: why do we have to import products and lose foreign-exchange money?" she said.

Duang-rudee's research into signal integrity in high-speed optical communication was funded by the Telecommunications Research and Industrial Development Institute (TRIDI), of the National Telecommunications Commission.

Her work focuses on analysing and creating clear signals that travel through gigahertz-level electronic circuit boards.

In the course of her research, Duang-rudee has also trained students to test all components, debug devices, solve related problems and design the board circuits, with the aim of creating experts in the field. The job is a tough and expensive one, given that the laboratory tools involved are costly, and some have to be imported.

Sometimes she has to ask for donations of dumped scraps of fibre-optic cable from local firms to use in her research.

Recently, Fabrinet - a leading Thailand-based manufacturer of optical communication components - agreed to collaborate with Chulalongkorn University's High-speed Telecom Network Research Centre by providing material support, access to facilities and internship opportunities. In return, the university will provide relevant training and seminars for Fabrinet staff.

The collaboration is a TRIDI initiative to forge multilateral cooperation between the institute, industries and educational institutes to foster the development of Thailand's telecom industry.