Digital Innovation Park set to be established in Thai East

BANGKOK, August 1 (TNA) - A digital innovation park will be established in Thailand's seaside Chon Buri Province in the coming years to turn the eastern resort province to be a national digital hub with its model on a Smart City, Smart Life, Smart Energy and Smart People to sustain national development in the long run. The Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT), under the Ministry of Industry, and CAT Telecom Public Company Limited (CAT), under the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the joint development of the Digital Innovation Park, to be situated on a 600-rai plot of land (about 240 acres) in Chon Buri's Sriracha District, on August 1, witnessed by Vice Minister for Industry Pornchai Trakulwaranont and Vice Minister for ICT Phansak Siriratchatapong. IEAT Governor Veerapong Chaiperm told journalists that under the MOU, IEAT and CAT will jointly conduct an eight-month feasibility study on the project and will then use another 4-10 months to lay out tasks under the project and divide their responsibilities, after that the construction and the development of the Digital Innovation Park will be started, in which the private sector may be invited to jointly invest. The IEAT chief said Sriracha is selected to be the venue of the new Digital Innovation Park as it is considered a potential area to become a practical ICT base connecting Thailand with other economies in the region and worldwide. Besides, Sriracha is in the radius of the Thai government-initiated eastern special economic zones and in line with the administration's Model Thailand 4.0 Strategy, under which 10 major Thai industrial clusters will be developed to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country, including automobile, petrochemical, digital and comprehensive medical clusters. Meanwhile, Acting CAT President Surapan Meknavin acknowledged that the Digital Innovation Park is mainly aimed to support the Thai government's policy on digital economy, in which advance ICT technologies are applied for the development of a Smart City, Smart Life, Smart Energy and Smart People to sustain national development on the long-term basis, along with the promotion of start-ups in the area. According to the acting CAT president, the 600-rai area is a high potential strategic growth zone for national economic and transport development projects and located near a CAT undersea cable station, facilitating Thailand's ICT connectivity with other economies in the region and across the world, along with supporting a Thai government data center and global content providers to be set up in the area based on the ISO 27001 ICT standards. (TNA)