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Bangkok Post
17-07-2025
- Business
- Bangkok Post
Science, AI key to digital hub drive
Thailand should invest more in science education and research, while broadening its adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) to gain an advantage in its quest to become a digital hub in Southeast Asia, according to tech experts and the World Bank. Pathom Indarodom, director of the Digital Council of Thailand (DCT), said Thailand's 2024 IMD competitiveness ranking of 37th out of 67 countries indicates it lags regional peers China, South Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam in crucial areas such as knowledge, technology infrastructure, and future readiness. While Thailand boasts strengths in high-tech exports with the 11th ranking, and 8th for telecommunication investment/internet speed, the challenge lies in leveraging these for creating innovation and scaling businesses, Mr Pathom said at a recent World Bank forum on its Thailand Economic Monitor. He said that in terms of education, Thailand's annual computer science and engineering graduates are 20,000 fewer than the industry demands. In addition, the country regularly reports low student scores on the Program for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests. No government has tried to fix the problem at its root, even though the country needs more teachers to inspire high school students to learn more in the fields of science and mathematics, said Mr Pathom. The DCT says that moving towards an AI transformation requires significant investment in education and research, coupled with building strong public-private-academic sector partnerships to deliver real outcomes. TOP USERS "Thailand has made great strides in digital adoptions over the last couple of years. When technology comes, we're always one of the heaviest users," said Aditip Panupong, head of commercial and strategic alliances at Google Thailand. Thailand, for example, is always one of the top 10 YouTube markets in the world, with this strong consumer adoption extending to other Google platforms like Google Maps, and even high growth in the Gemini chatbot. "We are now in the middle of the AI revolution, which is the fourth tech revolution apart from internet, mobile and cloud. Every technological evolution creates new growth engines for a tech-driven economy," said Mr Aditip. "In the past 6-8 months, from a business standpoint, we have seen momentum -- out of the clients we work with, 20% of them have adopted AI in one shape or form, and another 75% have expressed interest in or plan to use AI." Banks have deployed AI for fraud detection, while retail and hospitality sectors use AI for customer segmentation and for hyper-personalised marketing campaigns. In healthcare, Google works with Rajavithi Hospital on using AI to detect retinal diabetes, addressing the shortage of doctors in remote area. "We need more STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] students, and need to make sure that students will start to use AI for research and increase productivity, as well as increasing computational skills," said Mr Aditip. He highlighted the importance of collaboration for AI's collective benefit, noting Google's work with academia, researchers, government, and public institutions to tackle challenges that a single stakeholder cannot solve. ASEAN DIGITAL HUB Ji Eun Choi, senior digital development specialist at the World Bank, said Thailand has the potential to be a regional digital hub. She said the country's world-class digital public infrastructure, including digital ID and digital payment systems, are its key assets that are much more advanced than those in many peer economies. Growing foreign direct investment in data centres signals investor confidence in Thailand's capacity to serve not only domestic needs but also regional demand, said Ms Choi. The Asean Digital Economy Framework Agreement is being developed to create a digital economy framework, aimed at establishing the region as a single digital market. This regional integration, by allowing easier cross-border data flows, would create a significantly larger market for digital businesses to thrive. In addition, she said Thailand stands between two poles -- open and closed data -- meaning strong data protection and allowing the use of data across different agencies. The Personal Data Protection Act covers data protection, but data is allowed to flow across borders and is shared by different agencies. Ms Choi said Thailand should offer incentives to the private sector to share data and use data in more productive ways. She cited interesting models in South Korea that drive AI inclusion, in particular for small businesses. One of them is a state AI voucher programme to incentivise AI adoption among small firms, which boosts AI industry development and increases the number of AI solution providers. Mr Aditip added that a critical challenge for Thailand is the limited, undocumented, and undigitised nature of Thai data, which hinders the development of large language models and other AI capabilities crucial for regional leadership.
Business Times
16-07-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Built in Thailand, funded in Singapore, as startups gravitate to city-state
[BANGKOK] In October 2026, Thailand will host the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings, with digital transformation expected to take centre stage. But even as the country readies for its time in the global spotlight, it is hard to ignore a key gap – its own lacklustre startup ecosystem. Thailand has made big strides in building its digital infrastructure. As at the first quarter of 2025, 70 data centres have been approved, alongside heavy investments in cloud computing, nationwide 5G coverage, and booming digital commerce, with e-commerce transactions reaching six trillion baht (S$237.5 billion) and e-payments hitting eight trillion baht in 2024. Yet despite these promising numbers, the country continues to lag regional peers in critical areas such as information and communications technology manufacturing, digital services, and, most notably, venture capital (VC) funding for startups, according to the World Bank's latest Thailand Economic Monitor. Startups are widely seen as key drivers of digital transformation, yet successive Thai governments have offered limited financial backing and policy support for the sector. 'While Thailand has made progress in e-commerce adoption, this success has not translated into robust investments in digital startups or advanced support for digital entrepreneurship,' said the World Bank in its July report. No government push Part of the challenge lies in the absence of government policy to support the sector. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am Asean Business Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies. Sign Up Sign Up Douglas Abrams, managing director of Expara, an early-stage VC firm based in Singapore and focused on South-east Asia, said: 'A successful entrepreneurial ecosystem – startups and venture capital – always needs to be catalysed by the government.' Expara was one of several early-stage investors in 2C2P, a payments platform launched in Thailand that has since grown into a regional player. Today, it powers transactions for major clients such as Lazada, Singlife, Lenovo, AirAsia, Thai Airways, Changi Airport Group and luxury hotel brand Capella. The platform was founded by Myanmar national Aung Kyaw Moe, 50, who moved to Thailand in 1997, where he found work as a teacher and software programmer for computer games. In April 2003, Aung Kyaw Moe set up his own company, SinaptIQ, that developed a payment software (providing one-time passwords for credit card transactions) for Thai banks that is still in use today. A year later, he co-founded Paysbuy – a Thai equivalent of PayPal – which was eventually sold to Thai telecom giant DTAC in 2007 for around 200 million baht. At loose ends after the sale, Aung Kyaw Moe joined Sasin School of Management in Bangkok, where he met Abrams, who, besides running Expara, also taught venture capitalism at Sasin. Eager to build a new company offering comprehensive payment solutions for banks and merchants, Aung Kyaw Moe, acting on Abram's advice, relocated 2C2P's headquarters to Singapore in 2008, drawn by the government's active push to promote its enterprise ecosystem programme. Aung Kyaw Moe told The Business Times: 'Singapore is the only country (in South-east Asia) where you can get serious venture capital investment.' Singapore appeal One reason foreign VC gravitates towards Singapore is its legal framework, which is in English and based on British common law, thus offering clarity and investor confidence. Aung Kyaw Moe said: 'The second thing is that in Singapore, you can issue different classes of shares at different prices. In Thailand, if you want to increase your shares, you have to pay for those shares at par value.' Providing free stock options to employees is one of the key early compensation structures in Western startups. 'You basically cannot provide incentive stock options for employees (in Thailand),' said Kasima Tharnpipitchai, SCB 10X's AI strategy head. 'It's an ongoing problem that the government says they will look at, but haven't addressed.' Given the challenges of legal reform in Thailand, Aung Kyaw Moe suggests that Bangkok take inspiration from Dubai, where the government has set up the Dubai International Financial Centre as a separate jurisdiction governed by British common law to attract VC and startups. Scaling up In 2022, Aung Kyaw Moe and his co-founders sold 2C2P to Ant Financial/Alibaba Group for US$590 million. 'If this was a Thai company, the exit would never have happened, because as a Thai company I would never have been able to grow the company to this size,' he said. 'Singapore is where the capital is, and the image too.' The company now has 11 subsidiaries in nine countries, with Thailand still its largest market. 'Eight out of 10 transactions in Thailand today are processed by 2C2P. Every single airline here has its payments processed by 2C2P,' noted Aung Kyaw Moe. Another dynamic Thai startup to watch is Meticuly, founded by Thai national Boonrat Lohwongwatana, a graduate of Caltech in the US. After years of research on mineral science at US universities, Dr Boonrat returned to Thailand and joined Chulalongkorn University's engineering department where he developed a process for speeding up the manufacture of titanium body implants – skulls, kneecaps, hips and others. He currently is in Boston and sells the technology to US hospitals. His technology is already widely used in Thai hospitals. Dr Boonrat said: 'In a nutshell, it is artificial intelligence-powered 3D printing technology for personalised implants, and we can deliver them in a matter of days.' To support its growth ambitions, Meticuly also established its headquarters in Singapore in 2022. While Thailand has struggled to attract independent VC, it does have several corporate VC arms operated by major banks and conglomerates. But Dr Boonrat is wary of going down that route. 'When you don't have enough financial VC (firms) leveraging your growth, then the country is in trouble,' he said. '(All) the bank-backed corporate VC (firms) want is to invest and take over. It's not that they want you to grow and exit.'
Bangkok Post
03-07-2025
- Business
- Bangkok Post
World Bank cuts Thailand growth outlook
Thailand's economic growth is projected to slow to 1.8% this year and 1.7% next year amid intensifying global and domestic headwinds, the World Bank said on Thursday. The growth forecasts were reduced sharply from the 2.9% and 2.7% rates projected in February. Gross domestic product last year expanded by 2.5%, lagging most Asian peers. The slowdown reflects weaker exports and tourism, particularly due to a decline in arrivals from China, as well as weak domestic demand, the World Bank said in its Thailand Economic Monitor report. The recovery in tourism has been slower than forecast, with foreign arrivals expected to reach 37.4 million this year, down marginally from last year, and only returning to pre-pandemic levels by the second quarter of 2026, the report said. Internally, political uncertainties could delay the 2026 fiscal budget and hold back investments in public infrastructure, causing spillovers into private investment and overall growth, the global lender said. The Constitutional Court on Tuesday suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from duty pending a case seeking her dismissal on ethics grounds following the embarrassing leak of her phone conversation with former Cambodian premier Hun Sen. The World Bank also sees more room for the Bank of Thailand to cut interest rates to spur the sluggish economy. 'With rising domestic and external uncertainty, as well as falling inflationary pressure, the monetary stance is projected to become more accommodative in 2025,' it said. The Bank of Thailand has cut its key interest rate by a cumulative 75 basis points since October to 1.75% to cushion the blow to the economy from the fallout of global trade tensions and an uncertain growth outlook. It has also left the door open for further easing. Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira said earlier that the economy could expand by just over 1% this year due to the impact of US tariffs. Mr Pichai is in the United States for trade talks this week. Washington has threatened to impose a 36% levy on imports from Thailand if a reduction cannot be negotiated before July 9, when a 90-day pause capping tariffs at a baseline of 10% for most nations expires. Despite all the challenges Thailand faces, growth could hit 2.2% this year if trade tensions cool and private investment grows moderately, the World Bank said. Domestically, effective implementation of fiscal stimulus and high-quality infrastructure investment could support growth, according to the report. The World Bank said digital technology can be a catalyst for Thailand's growth and create more jobs, deliver better services and boost productivity in the face of uncertainty. The nation's digital economy is estimated to contribute around 6% of gross domestic product and is the second-largest in Southeast Asia. Financial services, digital payments, fintech and software and engineering industries, have seen some of the fastest rates of job creation over the past decade, according to the report.
Bloomberg
14-02-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
World Bank Sees Thai Fiscal Risks Mounting Due to Spending Surge
Thailand's pursuit of an expansionary fiscal policy strategy to propel growth faces the risk of rising costs for elderly care, investment and the need to keep public debt level to sustainable levels, according to the World Bank. The Southeast Asian nation can enhance fiscal resilience amid the rising spending by reducing regressive energy subsidies, raising tax revenue and accelerating public investments in infrastructure, new technology and human capital, the bank said in its Thailand Economic Monitor report released Friday.
