An announcement
made by the Bangkok
Post highlighted a survey conducted by Asia IoT Business Platform wherein
Thailand led among the ASEAN countries with the most number of enterprises that
are exploring and/or implementing IoT.
According to a survey done by the Asia IoT
Business Platform, Thailand is the top country in the ASEAN where enterprises are
exploring and/or implementing Internet of Things (IoT) solutions that will
boost their productivity and innovation. Thailand ranked high because the
enterprises were aware of the technology, thanks to government policy and
investments in soft and hard infrastructures.
With 1,573 respondents from 5 countries in
2017, 89% answered that enterprises in Thailand are exploring and/or
implementing IoT solutions. This is the highest in the ASEAN region. Following
Thailand are Malaysia (86%), Indonesia (83%), the Philippines (80%) and Vietnam
(79%).
The percentage of enterprises exploring
and/or implementing IoT solutions in Thailand has increased to 92% in 2018. Holding
the largest share, with 27.4% of overall industrial value is manufacturing since
it is critical to adopt and deploy IoT to capitalise on the new economy.
Chief Executive of Asia IoT Business
Platform at Industry Platform Pte Mr Irza Suprapto said that the figure in
Thailand is not surprising because of the country has a lot of Industry 4.0
related projects.
Since manufacturing is the largest
contributor to the economy of Thailand, having a high percentage is a positive signal
according to Mr Irza.
He said, “There has been strong interest
from local enterprises in Thailand to implement digitisation and IoT projects.
The demand creates an ecosystem of innovation locally as it encourages
investment by technology start-ups and established solution providers in
Thailand.”
Data from the 2017 survey shows that 89% of
Thai enterprises were exploring and implementing IoT. 42% of which were in the
fact-finding stage, 25% in the exploratory stage while 22% have already
implemented and/or benefited from IoT solutions.
Compare it with data from 2018, which shows
that 92% of Thai enterprises are exploring and/or implementing IoT. 35% of
which are in the fact-finding stage, 29% are in the exploratory stage while 28%
have already implemented and/or benefited from IoT solutions.
Results also show that 26% of Thai
enterprises have dedicated teams to implement digital transformation. 32% represented
those that have already implemented digital transformation in at least one
functional area within their businesses.
A press conference was held by the Digital Economy
Promotion Agency (DEPA), under the Ministry of Digital Economy and
Society (MDES), wherein they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
with Asia IoT Business Platform.
This is for the “Asia IoT Business Platform
(AIBP) Thailand 2018” conference which aims to deliver the latest statistics
from an ASEAN-wide survey covering enterprise digitisation. The 2-day event
will be held at the InterContinental hotel in Bangkok on 24 to 25 July 2018.
DEPA President Dr Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin
said that the event is expected to facilitate local tech start-ups and help
them connect with global players, especially those in IoT-related business
ecosystem.
He said, “Working with AIBP will help local
small businesses as well as start-ups obtain more opportunities to enter new
regional markets, serving DEPA’s road map of digital knowledge exchange and
development of innovative business.”
Director for Small and Mid-market Solutions
and Partners at Microsoft Thailand Mr Tanapong
Ittisakulchai said that digital transformation could add as much as US$387
billion to the economy of the Asia-Pacific by 2021.
He also added that business leaders across the
region viewed IoT as one of the top tech priorities in achieving their digital
transformation.