Huawei Doubles Down on Commitment to Boost Thailand’s Digital Transformation and Economic Recovery

Thailand’s Digital Transformation to boost Economic Recovery

Humanity is rapidly marching into the fourth industrial revolution represented by digital technologies. New technologies such as broadband, AI, IoT and cloud are being integrated into all aspects of human society. Like electricity 100 years ago, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is extending to every industry on a large scale, becoming a key enabler of social development and generating multiple waves of technology dividends.

During the several waves of COVID-19 outbreak, the omnipresence of digital technology and its significant impact on our life and work has been highlighted more than over. According to the latest Global Connectivity Index, countries better positioned in their digital transformation process experience less impact from the pandemic and will achieve faster recovery. If we look at 2020 GDP growth per capita statistics, facing the devastating impacts of COVID-19, those 5G frontrunner countries experienced less negative GDP growth and showed greater resilience.

In this momentous transformation, we are highly inspired to see that in Thailand, the strong investment in ICT infrastructure has shown tremendous values during the pandemic, providing resilience, opportunities for growth and offering businesses a strategic advantage. Due to its strong strategy in investing in digital technologies, Thailand has gradually emerged as the digital hub for ASEAN from several aspects: through its development of the Digital Economy and Society Development Plan, aiming to drive digital economy growth and achieve the visionary Thailand 4.0, its no.1 ranking among 176 countries in terms of fixed broadband Internet speed, as well as 5G infrastructure forerunner and leader in integrating 5G technology in key industries including healthcare, agriculture and manufacturing.

According to a survey on Thailand’s digital life in 2020 and 2021, people’s use of e-commerce has increased from 37% to 76%, and the ratio of people who work remotely rises from 17% to 30%. At the same time, the cloud adoption rate by corporates has rapidly increased from 26% to 70%. By 2030, digital economy is estimated to account for 30% of Thailand’s overall GDP.

With open collaboration and innovation, Huawei has been serving Thai customers and society as a technology-leading and trusted ICT partner. With continued investment in 5G, cloud and local digital talent development, we have contributed to accelerate Thailand’s digital transformation and enhance the country’s digital competitiveness in order to create greater social values.

While we continue to drive digital transformation with our long-standing customers and partners, we believe one of the keys to Thailand’s sustainable and inclusive development is the country’s efforts towards carbon neutrality. This is also the reason why Huawei continues its strong support for promoting Thailand's digital transformation through business expansion with its first Digital Power business in Thailand. Huawei’s Digital Power business aims to support Thailand towards becoming ASEAN’s carbon neutral leader, with leading technology, such as the Smart PV for clean energy generation and global practice to reduce carbon emissions.

Maintaining a Strong Commitment

Thailand has long been a strategic overseas market for Huawei, and we have been committed to the mission “Grow in Thailand, Contribute to Thailand” for 22 years, with continuous dedication to contributing social values to Thai people, businesses and society. The contributions span over three main areas, namely, strong and immediate support to protect people and get society back up and running during COVID-19, digital talents ecosystem cultivation and SMEs and Startups ecosystem support. 

Over the past year, the economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is challenging for all fields, with significant impact on individual, industry and national economy across the world. In this fight against pandemic, Huawei has been standing firmly with Thailand and transform the ongoing crisis into new opportunity by applying digital technology including to 5G, Cloud and AI to tackle challenges in the public health and other sectors. Huawei’s support to fight against COVID-19 has been reflected in our numerous collaborations with Thai hospitals and partners, such as adopting AI-assisted diagnosis solution to Ramathibodi and Siriraj Hospitals, developing 5G unmanned vehicle pilot project with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), to elevate the healthcare system and support Thai doctors and nurses to provide safer, quicker and stronger health services. In order to further empower Thailand’s digital healthcare capacity, in September 2021, Huawei and Department of Medical Services under Ministry of Public Health of Thailand signed MoU for “5G Empowered Healthcare towards a Digital Thailand”, which will facilitate knowledge sharing and the deep integration of 5G and AI in health services.

In the meantime, when Thailand has become a forerunner in 5G rollout and applications in the ASEAN region, we can see a stronger need to invest in digital upskilling and reskilling of the ICT workforce. As the key to driving digital development lies in a thriving talent foundation, we have been proactively enabling Thailand 4.0 through digital talent cultivation, with approximately 180M THB invested and 16,500 people trained in Huawei ASEAN Academy (Thailand) in 2020. As the path to a digitalized future never ends, Huawei will continuously work with the public and private sector to enable the digital talent ecosystem. In March 2021, Huawei and the Eastern Economic Corridor Office signed MoU for Digital Talent Collaboration in Conjunction with Huawei ASEAN Academy EEC Branch Opening, with the target to train 30,000 digital workers within the next 3 Years.

Furthermore, in Thailand’s path towards becoming ASEAN digital hub, we highly appreciate and recognize the key role of SMEs and Startup unicorns in a strong digital economy.  According to the World Bank, SMEs represent about 90% of businesses and more than 50% of employment worldwide. Formal SMEs contribute up to 40% of GDP in emerging economies. An estimated 600 million jobs will be needed by 2030 to absorb the growing digital industries, which makes SME development and a skilled talent foundation a high priority for Thailand. Therefore, we have been collaborating with industry key stakeholders, including cooperating with the New Economy Academy under the Ministry of Commerce to train around 1,000 people from the SMEs. From June to September this year, Huawei together with the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA), the National Innovation Agency (NIA), as well as local customers and partners held the ‘Spark-Ignite 2021 – Thailand Start-up Competition’, enabling Thai startups to grow at the international level while fostering digital talent in the country. 132 startups have registered and the winners received HUAWEI CLOUD credit worth 4 million baht and a global professional counsel and support program. This competition also provided an opportunity for tech startups across Thailand to join the Huawei Spark Accelerator program, founded by HUAWEI CLOUD and underpinned by Huawei technological&innovation leadership.

Digital Technology supports Thailand to become ASEAN’s Digital Hub and Carbon Neutrality Leader

Looking ahead, we are confident and excited about the future. We believe Thailand can become the ASEAN digital hub not only with its digital technology implementation but also as a Carbon Neutrality Leader, thriving with innovation and sustainability.

In order to empower Thailand to become the ASEAN Digital Hub and achieve the country’s goal of leading ASEAN in carbon neutrality, we will continuously invest in four domains: 5G, data center & cloud, digital power, and talent development.

Since becoming a separate business unit within Huawei, the Digital Power business has expanded rapidly, and has been utilized in over 170 countries and regions, with industry-leading output and market share. In Prefabricated Modular Data Center, Smart PV and Site Power Facility business, Huawei has gained a leadership position within the sector with the largest global market share. For mPower business, Huawei was the world’s first company to innovate new technology called X-in-1 ePowertrain, to raise the energy efficiency of electric vehicles. Moreover, for Modular Power, Huawei has supplied over 300 million high-efficiency Modular Power units globally. In 2020, Huawei’s sale revenue from the digital power business globally reached 5.5 billion USD and served one third of the world's population.

This year, Huawei has established its new Digital Power business in Thailand, and the company is now continuously serving more than 50 local partners with services, integration, and solutions, creating over 1,000 local indirect job opportunities. With highly efficient local team and partners, Huawei expects that leading-technology and global practice adoption will be able to support Thailand toward becoming the ASEAN carbon neutral leader.

Huawei also continues supporting Thailand through ongoing investment in 5G innovation and local ecosystem. While Thailand has had a leading rollout progress compared to other countries in the region, it is important to continue with a fast adoption rate, to remain in the lead and help create new economy value including new job opportunities as well as increase the digital economy’ share of GDP. Huawei Thailand has invested 475 million THB for 5G EIC to help develop and innovate 5G use case for various industries, create new business models, and upskill for startups and SMEs. The company is also working together with partners to arrange the first 5G Summit in Thailand this year to support the 5G industry and ecosystem in the country. With support of DEPA, we will work with ecosystem partners in leading industry sector to initiate 5G alliance to build a healthy 5G industry application & innovation ecosystem in Thailand.

Huawei will continue to boost the ecosystem to build leading 5G City with high standard 5G network infrastructure to strengthen 5G applications and innovation that will bring new business services and value. This will also push Thailand to become an ASEAN 5G country, also aligning with Thailand’s role as a host for the APEC 2022 Summit, to be held in Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai.

Moreover, our 700 million THB investment for the third local data center in Thailand makes Huawei Cloud the first and currently the only global cloud service provider with three data centers in Thailand, creating more than 200 direct job opportunities with 200 local partners.

As a proactive digital transformation enabler, Huawei not only brings ICT technologies to Thailand but also continues to invest to help the industries adopt these technologies in their business scenarios.

As a leading ICT partner for digital transformation, as well as continuous social value contributor in Thailand for more than 22 years, we will continuously push forward digital transformation in Thailand, and bring digital technology to every person, home, and organization for a fully connected, intelligent Thailand so that the country can recover quickly. With the mission of 'Grow in Thailand, Contribute to Thailand’, Huawei will reinforce its commitment to helping the country move toward becoming ASEAN’s digital hub and a carbon neutral leader.