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Published on November 6, 2007

The move is the agency's latest strategy to strengthen local software companies in overseas markets.

Birasak Varasundharosoth, Sipa's chairman, said the agency's direction is to focus on encouraging local software to capture the global market through exporting their products and services. To help local software companies more easily expand to markets abroad, the joint investment of government agencies is required to increase the trust and confidence of target customers.

The agency has set aside Bt20 million - 5 per cent of its budget - for joint investment purposes. The agency will set up a committee to oversee this matter. The joint investments will be deployed in enterprise, animation and multimedia, mobile and embedded-system software systems.

From the 100 companies targeted for joint investment, Birasak said the agency has not set specific target numbers for each type of software development.

Local software companies in the four focus areas of Sipa have an equal chance of getting an investment from the agency.

"The ratios of the joint investments are from 5 per cent to 30 per cent, but mostly we aim to invest only 5 per cent in each company. The joint-venture programme has started now," said Birasak.

Not only providing feed money to local software companies, the joint investments include incubating them and the provision of training, which Sipa could do through its network partners such as Amata Nakorn and the Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion instead of running the programme itself.

It aims to encourage around 100 companies to be in joint investments with the agency in two years' time. The move is also to increase the value of the Thai software industry from Bt50 billion last year to Bt60 billion this year before jumping to Bt70 billion next year.

"They will be short investments, for five years, after which Sipa will withdraw. During the five years, Sipa will work with the Market for Alternative Investment to encourage them to list there," said Birasak.

The move is to strengthen local software companies and prepare them to look abroad. Birasak said the idea needed support from other government agencies such as Sipa. Apart from the joint investments, Sipa will also focus on training a huge number of people through various schemes.

Sipa has joined with Amata Nakorn to provide training to 200,000 hi-tech workers in the estate. It aims for around 10 per cent or about 20,000 people to be involved in the initial training programme.

The intention is to create more professional engineers and scientists for the country. Birasak said that more of both could attract research and development investment from international companies.

"We aim to develop professional software engineers and scientists - around 5,000 people in the first couple of years and eventually around 15,000 people will be trained in new technologies such as software oriented architecture, Web 2.0 and Web services," said Birasak.

The agency also aims to create demand in the domestic market for local software. It plans to promote the local market through collaboration with the Association of Thai Software Industry (ATSI) through the "Buy Thai First" programme.

"The local market cannot be neglected as it is the best springboard for local software companies hoping to reach the global market," said Birasak.

Asina Pornwasin

 The Nation