5G innovation center aims to speed up Thailand 4.0
Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency in partnership with Huawei Technologies (Thailand) has established the 5G Ecosystem Innovation Center (EIC) which it is touting as a digital development and innovation accelerator to drive Thailand 4.0.
Thailand 4.0 aims to transform the country into a digital behemoth, hosting an ecosystem where startups can thrive, speeding up 5G adoption, and creating buoyant e-payment systems.
The 5G Ecosystem Innovation Center is expected to optimize the full use of digital technology and knowledge-sharing through world-class training for a future-proof workforce in the country.
At the launch event, fourth year students from Srinakharinwirot University Ong Rak Campus Faculty of Engineering Electrical Engineering explored the 5G technology test trial process, innovation, and development. Students are also allowed to study and research at the 5G innovation center.
5G use cases for Thailand 4.0
Over the last two years, Thailand has pushed for widespread adoption in 5G across multiple industries.
By 2022 to 2030, 5G services adoption for remote patient monitoring and remote surgery applications is anticipated to accelerate in Thailand. The first steps have been made through the Siriraj World Class 5G Smart Hospital launched last December.
In addition, 5G is predicted to transform the transportation and logistics industry through seamless Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) connectivity.
Last month, Huawei announced its new mission in transforming Thailand to become the 5G leader in Southeast Asia, planning to increase Thailand’s 5G population coverage to 70% by 2022 and 5G penetration rate to 20%.
The government is also fast-tracking 5G innovation and development. The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) mobilized to pilot 5G technology in a total of nine projects in multiple sectors including agriculture, health, industry, education, transportation and Smart City nationwide.
In December 2021, MDES anticipated Thailand’s 5G network will have 70 million users by 2027 and will generate no less than $19 billion over the next 10 years.
Government spending on technology products and services is projected to increase by 6.4% from 2021 amounting to almost $25.5 billion, according to a Gartner report.
Enterprise software is expected to have the highest growth of 14.8% ($1.8 billion), with IT services at 9.8% ($2.5 billion) and devices at 9% (S6.4 billion). While communication service is expected to have the lowest growth at 3.8%, it eats up the largest IT spending portion at $14 billion taking more than half of the total market.
Thailand’s enterprise software, devices, IT services, and communication services spending is projected to register higher percentage growth compared to worldwide IT spending, Gartner said.