Today at the “Digital Samart Thailand” event, Google Thailand further deepened its commitment to ‘Leave No Thai Behind’ – sharing the latest progress of the key enablers necessary for the country to thrive in the AI economy.
This includes working with the Royal Thai Government to co-create a cloud-first policy in Thailand and generative AI (gen AI) collaborations with three public sector organizations, as well as an additional 12,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships and four new Google Career Certificates to upskill Thais with in-demand digital skills and prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow.
These initiatives are part of the four-pillar collaboration between Google and the Royal Thai Government to boost Thailand’s digital competitiveness: advancing digital infrastructure investments; anchoring on cloud-first policies; promoting secure and responsible AI adoption to transform public service delivery and making digital skills more accessible to Thais.
Jackie Wang, Country Director of Google Thailand: “Over the past decade, we have held ourselves to the commitment of supporting the growth of Thailand’s digital economy. We’re so humbled to learn that in 2022 alone, businesses in Thailand used Google’s AI-powered products and solutions to unlock over 150 billion baht in economic benefits.
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In turn, this also contributed 74 billion baht in economic activities for local SMBs and supported both directly and indirectly more than 250,000 local jobs. This is yet another testament to the power of technology in driving economic growth and creating opportunities, and we’re so proud to play a part in the long-term growth of Thailand’s digital economy.”
Co-creating a national cloud-first policy and accelerating AI innovation in the public sector
At the event, the Prime Minister announced that the government had developed a Go Cloud First Policy that incorporates recommendations and international best practices from Google, like permitting the free flow of data with privacy and security protections through encryption keys, and defining types of data that may need to be stored in a fully air-gapped private cloud environment. The Cabinet has approved the Prime Minister’s proposal to have the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) accelerate the implementation of this Policy, with further details to be announced in Q1 2024.
Google Cloud also announced gen AI collaborations with MDES, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and the Big Data Institute (BDI). Officials from these three AI pioneers will receive hands-on training from Google Cloud engineers to identify high-impact use cases that can be addressed with gen AI, and then use Vertex AI to build their own innovative solutions. Through Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform, organizations can choose from 100+ Google and open-source foundation models, create their own custom models using in-built tools and enterprise data and integrate these custom models into their digital services to better serve stakeholders.
Srettha Thavisin, the Prime Minister of Thailand, said: “It is a great pleasure for the Royal Thai Government to work closely with Google to help Thailand achieve sustainable growth in the new digital economy, driven by key technologies such as cloud-based AI. This partnership will support the government’s priorities under the national strategy to create high-value job opportunities and improve the quality of life for Thai people, while reinforcing Thailand’s position as a major destination for investment.
I would like to thank the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) and the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI) for taking the lead on behalf of the government in strategic initiatives with Google in the areas of AI, cloud, and cybersecurity.”
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“Since the conclusion of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting, the government has been speeding up efforts to strengthen the Thai economy. First, we have created a Go Cloud First Policy in collaboration with Google, which we aim to put into effect as soon as possible. Integrating cloud technologies into government operations will help us improve the quality and responsiveness of the services we provide to our citizens.
Secondly, as economic activities transition online and cybersecurity becomes even more important, the government is laying the groundwork for a new National Cyber Security framework facilitated by the National Cyber Security Committee (NCSC). Thirdly, the government will take the lead in promoting gen AI adoption to boost productivity and improve the delivery of citizen-centric services with training and tools for officials provided by Google Cloud. These are the government’s proactive actions to help Thailand leapfrog into the new digital and AI economy,” Srettha added.
Karan Bajwa, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Google Cloud, said: “Our research reveals that at least 2.6 trillion baht in economic benefits can be unlocked by 2030 if local organizations embrace AI innovation. However, traditional hardware and software technology stacks lack the scalability and flexibility to handle the evolving demands of AI, making enterprise-ready cloud AI capabilities an essential enabler of innovation. We’ve therefore partnered with the government to shape its Go Cloud First Policy to create a clearer pathway for organizations to swiftly access these capabilities.”
“Through our collaborations with MDES, MOT and BDI, we’re going a step further to equip public service officers to build and deploy gen AI solutions using these capabilities. As we strive to make further progress across our four pillars of collaboration, our goal is to bring organizations on an accelerated journey toward extracting diverse benefits from gen AI adoption, at a scale that transforms the economy and delivers high-impact outcomes for citizens,” Karan added.
Bridging the digital skills gap with additional scholarships and four new Google Career Certificates
As digitalisation continues to spread across the nation, the demand for digital skills is growing just as fast. Ensuring that access to digital skills is available for more Thai people is key to unlocking digital opportunities amidst the rapid scaling of the digital economy in Thailand. In fact, according to the latest Economic Impact Report, it is estimated that Thailand will need 600,000 additional workers with advanced and intermediate digital skills by 2027 to support the growth of the digital economy. The same report also shows that by narrowing the digital talent gap, digital skills training can add THB 1.0 trillion to Thailand’s economy by 2030.
In October 2022, Google introduced Samart Skills, an exclusive Grow with Google program for Thailand aiming to help bridge the digital skills gap with access to digital upskilling and in-demand jobs for more Thais. Since its inception, Google has trained 5,500 learners with 85% of graduates reporting a positive career outcome – such as a new job, promotion, or raise – within six months of completion.
As the demand for digital skills continues to grow, Google announced today that it is doubling down on its commitment with an additional 12,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships to the Board of Investments (BOI) and Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) until the end of 2024, bringing the total number of scholarships to 34,000. Additionally, to address emerging digital skills needs, Google has added four new Career Certificates in English including Cybersecurity, Advanced Data Analytics, Business Intelligence and IT Automation with Python, bumping the total of Career Certificates available to nine.
Saranee Boonritthongchai, Country Marketing Manager, Google Thailand, said: “To ensure more Thais are equipped to participate in the digital economy, we’re proud to be partnering with MDES and the Board of Investment of Thailand to offer 12,000 additional Google Career Certificate scholarships under Samart Skills program.
We believe that by empowering individuals and businesses with digital skills and fostering a secure digital environment, we can create a brighter future for everyone. Our close partnerships with local government and partners have helped us make digital skills accessible for all learners, regardless of their background. We look forward to working with them to continue this momentum and unlock even more economic opportunities for Thais.”
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