MCOT, OKMD to jointly develop new knowledge center in Bangkok

BANGKOK, May 8 (TNA) - MCOT Public Company Limited (MCOT), a most established Thai media firm, and the Office of Knowledge Management and Development (OKMD), have agreed to jointly develop a new and advanced national knowledge center in Bangkok to serve people of all ages and occupational areas. MCOT President Khematat Paladej and his OKMD counterpart Athipat Bamroong signed the agreement, in the form of a memorandum of understanding (MOU), on the joint development of the new National Knowledge Center (NKC) in the capital on May 7, witnessed by Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong and OKMD Board Chairman Jirachai Moontongroy. Jirachai then told journalists that the new NKC, to be located on a 20-rai area as part of an MCOT 50-rai plot of land (2.5 rai = 1 acre) near the company's head office and the Thailand Cultural Center on Thiam Ruam Mit Road, will be soon constructed and developed based on three main objectives, including becoming a new innovation on a national and regional knowledge source amid the fast changing global situation presently and a new model of an advanced, practical and immense knowledge center where people of all ages and occupational areas can meet to do co-activities and share their knowledge, ideas and creativities in order to reduce the disparity in the public access to knowledge bases, as well as providing a most appropriately-physical knowledge center to the public through multiple knowledge-giving services. Besides, the newly-launched NKC, themed a new vast green knowledge-based area where people in the society and the natural environment will co-exist peacefully and happily, will become a new Thai dimensional zone equipped with its advanced electronic library (e-library) and a variety of books, along with the existing OKMD-run TK Park in the heart of the city, to serve people in Thailand and those in other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Meanwhile, Thai Deputy Premier Air Chief Mashal Prajin congratulated both MCOT and OKMD for their agreed co-development of the new NKC, acknowledging that the new center should be, as well, a new knowledge-cum-tourist destination and an innovative and significant infrastructure for the human resource sustainable development in Thailand and in the region in accordance with the Thai government's policy. (TNA)