Lending a significant push to Thailand’s ambition to become a “smart nation,” the Information and Communication Technology Ministry is to be revamped in September as the Digital Economy and Society Ministry.
However, realigning the ministry and its direction in pursuit of a fully “digital economy” will be the easy part. The greater challenge will be in implementing reforms in an entrenched and undeservedly proud bureaucracy that, as matters stand, might undermine any progress made towards that vaunted goal.
Ironically, the announcement of this “new” ministry came just a month after the government put the brakes on Grab and Uber motorcycle-taxi services in Bangkok. Though their motorcar-taxi services are well established in countries around the world, both of these phone-application-based companies are still seen as start-ups. In Thailand they came up against a Transport Ministry defending the existing motorbike-taxi system in the capital and an ICT Ministry more interested in fostering homegrown start-ups.
This is of course the bureaucrats speaking, not politicians or generals, and unfortunately for the Thai economy, our bureaucracy seems stubbornly resistant to change and woefully unprepared for the future. We have administrators who prefer the easy route -- blocking fresh ideas rather than adapting them for inclusion in the system.
Instead of suspending Uber and Grab’s licenses, the government should be acceding to the global trend and finding a way to let them conduct their motorbike-taxi business here freely, ensuring only that they comply with existing law. Instead, the order for them to cease operations has struck a blow to efforts to establish an Internet-driven economy.
The Digital Economy and Society Ministry will surely have its work cut out if other segments of government are countermanding its aims. In two further recent examples of smart nation ambitions being “dumbed down,” the Commerce Ministry has restricted imports of 3-D printers and indicates it will regulate people working in computer networks. Instances abound of start-ups being obstructed when in fact they should be receiving all reasonable assistance from the state.
The private sector has long urged government agencies to facilitate the implementation of cohesive policy to make Thailand a prominent player in the digital age, yet despite a flurry of optimistic announcements, little has been accomplished so far. Succeeding in this venture will require a bold thrust by the public sector to match the enthusiasm of private enterprise.
Early steps at the realigned ministry must include alterations to existing legislation so that it provides a firm foundation for innovative companies to experiment without fear of being mired in legalities or, dare we say it, corruption. Regulations should be facilitating every promising fresh concept for building the digital economy, not choking off the willingness to dream and dare.
For this to happen, attitudes within key government agencies will have to change, most notably the mindset by which friends’ and allies’ turf has to be protected at all costs. We have to shape an environment in which start-ups -- both domestic and foreign -- can flourish, unimpeded by bureaucratic provincialism.
Singapore and Malaysia have made impressive progress in their shifts to digitalization thanks to clear, unified policies that place no obstacles in the path of entrepreneurs beyond what is essential to shielding the public from harm. Their state agencies have been assigned specific, straightforward tasks, their efforts are steadily monitored, and every success is rewarded.
Thailand by contrast is off to a poor start on the road to becoming a smart nation, as is plainly to be expected when one leg is trying to move forward while the other turns back.
