Sipa launches aggressive new support measures

The Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa) is to spend Bt325 million on a series of measures to support the local software industry in 2009 and to lift the industry's economic value from Bt62.9 billion in 2008 to between Bt66 billion and Bt68 billion.

Sipa's president Rungruang Limchoopatipa said the agency would develop six major strategies, each of them involving new projects, to support software companies and developers in Thailand.

These will aim to create competitiveness and to establish international standards and efficiency among local software companies so that they are able to compete in the global market.

The six strategies are promoting and developing the Thai software and digital-content industry; promoting access to capital and privileges; establishing cooperation between educational institutes and the software industry in personnel development; establishing Thailand as a regional hub for information and communication technology; promoting the competitiveness of Thai Information Technology; and promoting and protecting the intellectual property of local software developments, products and services. 

To promote and develop Thai software and digital content, the agency will spend Bt128.21 million on three new projects. The first, a National Software Industry Information project, will see the creation of an information centre to gather a database of local software companies, products and services. It will also provide information and marketing analysis in the areas of enterprise software, mobile software, games, e-learning, embedded technology and animation, in order to create and analyse both domestic and global opportunities for local developers.

Rungruang said the second project, International Market Promotion, would aim to promote and create new channels through which local software companies could access global markets.

Sipa will work to create confidence among domestic and international customers that international standards are used in the development of local software. It will also strive to match global companies with local software firms to encourage investment in the joint development of new products and services as well as promoting outsourcing of software in Thailand.

A third project, the Thai Software Product Showcase, will involve the development of a software and product directory in order to attract international customers and expand the market. It will also arrange software contests, to encourage businesses and developers to differentiate their products and services to meet market demand.

Rungruang said the second major strategy, promoting access to capital and privileges, would involve the creation of a Software Joint-Venture project with a budget of Bt38.68 million. The agency will create joint-venture companies with local software firms, with a maximum Sipa investment of Bt2 million in each one, to not only generate funds but also to give local enterprise-software firms, and those involved in digital content and games, an opportunity to develop new commercial products and services. The project will also create confidence, provide new potential marketing channels and provide consultancy to companies entering global markets, he said. The joint ventures will be limited to three years.

In its strategy to promote and protect intellectual property, Sipa plans to spend Bt27.37 million on an Intellectual-Property Promotion project that will provide consultancy, create awareness and educate local software companies and developers about their IP rights. The agency expects about 200 companies to take part in the project.

 Sipa's fifth strategy - the promotion of Thai IT competitiveness - will involve the expenditure of about Bt51.10 million on an Open-Source Promotion project and a project Promoting the Use of Thai Software among Thai Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

In its Open-Source Promotion project, the agency will cooperate with local software companies and partners to enhance the use of national enterprise-resource planning software by employing open-source software in its development. It will also encourage the use of open-source software in government agencies so local software companies will have the opportunity to develop new services and customised software products and services for both government agencies and commercial market.

Rungruang said Sipa would urge Thai SMEs to use local software solutions and applications to enhance their business processes and increase their efficiency and productivity. Moreover, the agency will launch a "Buy Thai First" campaign and organise a Thailand Software Fair to encourage business use of local software technologies to develop and support their processes.

In its final strategy - establishing Thailand as a regional hub for information and communications technology - Sipa is planning three new projects: an ICT Innovation Paradise project, a Thailand Digital Content Centre project and a Software Human Resource Development project.

With the aim of creating an "ICT innovation paradise," Sipa will set up a Regional Innovation Centre related to education software, embedded technology and e-services. It will also establish a Regional High Performance Computing Centre related to grid computing and cluster technology, and a Linux Competency Centre to support and facilitate the use of the centres' infrastructures by local software developers and companies. The centres will provide pooled resources and an open platform enabling local software companies and developers to create comprehensive commercial products and services. 

The Thailand Digital Content Centre project will see Sipa acting as a source of infrastructure solutions with which digital contents can be developed, including motion-capture and multimedia-streaming solutions. The centre will develop a common resource for sharing infrastructure to support local software developers in their creation of high quality digital content for global markets.

In its Software Human Resource Development project, Sipa will cooperate with the Education and Industry Ministries to provide training and ICT courseware to improve the ICT skills of Thai students. The agency aims for the education of 3,000 students around the country in ICT skills by the end of this year.

"I think that the six strategies will build the competitiveness of the Thai software industry to generate economic value and revenue for the country," Rungruang said. "We will work closer with local partners, including government agencies, private-sector organisations such as Software Park Thailand and the Association of Thai Software Industry and local software companies, to promote and boost the local software industry."

He said that when driven by Sipa's aggressive strategies, the local software industry could be expected to achieve a value of between Bt66 billion and Bt68 billion by the end of this year.