A draft report is soon to be presented to the Cabinet that aims to guide government support for Thailand's software and digital-content industries.
The report, called Supply Chain and Opportunities in the ICT Industry, has been prepared by the Information and Communications Technology Ministry not only for the Cabinet, but also for the National ICT Committee.
The hope is that government action based on the report will drive the growth of the software and digital-content industries both domestically and internationally.
ICT Ministry deputy permanent secretary Thaneerat Siriphachana said the report supported one of the major strategies outlined in the second ICT Master Plan, covering 2009 to 2014. The strategy focuses on upgrading the competitiveness of Thailand's ICT industry by adding value to products and increasing earnings. This aims to drive and promote the ICT industry - particularly its software and digital content sectors - in order to create environmental awareness, research and development and innovation, as well as transferring technology to entrepreneurs.
"The role of the industry is one of economic and social development. Many countries use ICT industries to drive their economies and to create competitiveness in global markets," Thaneerat said.
The Thailand Development Research Institute Foundation acted as a consultant to the team that prepared the draft report. Its vice president,
Somkiat Tangkitvanich, said the report confirmed that Thailand was capable of promoting its software and digital content on global markets and, indeed, had the opportunity to do so, in five distinct areas: software as a service (SaaS), embedded software, mobile content and games and animation.
The factors driving SaaS include low investment costs for software developers in providing the service and technology trends such as the development of cloud computing and increasing numbers of high-speed Internet users. SaaS also enables software users to enjoy lower costs, he said.
Thai software developers have the opportunity to develop SaaS and cloud computing to support both the domestic and international markets. Cloud computing is a start-up business in Thailand and overseas, and it provides an opportunity for the development of software to benefit all markets. For example, Thai software company TNT provides a 3D format for e-books to the Japanese market.
"The global market for SaaS in 2010 is worth about US$17.1 billion (Bt554.38 billion) and it has an annual growth rate of 29.8 per cent. In 2014, the market will be worth $40.5 billion and the growth rate will be 25 per cent," Somkiat said.
With regard to embedded software, the draft report says the US embedded software market is worth $35 billion a year, especially in the consumer goods, telecom and automobile industries. Therefore, there is an opportunity for local software companies to develop intellectual property in the form of embedded systems to claim a share of the global market.
However, Thailand lacks private-sector software developers and there is a major obstacle in the country's lack of testing laboratories. Such laboratories, which are needed to test new innovations and technologies, involve high expenditure.
Somkiat said local developers had the opportunity to develop mobile content because the smart-phone market was growing rapidly, both in Thailand and overseas. The opportunity existed not only for the development of new mobile applications, but also for the creation of App Stores to provide mobile content over the Internet to mobile-phone users.
He said there was "crucial growth" in the game industry. The global game market will be valued at Bt2.77 trillion in 2014, with market growth of about 10.6 per cent per year. Meanwhile, Thailand's game market, which has a current value of about Bt10 billion, will be worth Bt14 billion in 2013. Therefore, the opportunity exists for local software developers to take a share of the domestic game market.
Finally, the market for animation in Thailand is expected to reach a value of Bt8.2 billion this year, with about 40 production services. This represents a huge opportunity for Thai software companies to develop animation services and animated characters to support a growing market, Somkiat said.
The draft report highlights both the benefits to be gained by Thailand and enhanced competitiveness for the ICT industry if local software companies can lift their business from original equipment manufacturing to original design manufacturing and original brand manufacturing.
Somkiat said the draft suggested that the government should support digital content by equalling expenditure on research and development, support the development of virtual design centres, and create an organisation to promote digital content, to support the expansion of software developers and to export digital content to global markets.
"Thai software developers have the benefit of low-cost human resources to create software that compares with international products," Somkiat said. "They also have the imagination to develop high-quality software and digital content