Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand's Cabinet on July 27 approved a draft national big data strategy for 2025–2027, identifying eight critical gaps that must be addressed to build a data-driven economy and reduce the country’s dependence on foreign technology.
Prepared by the Big Data Institute (BDI) under the Thai Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, the plan is intended to guide the use of large-scale data in driving Thailand’s economy and society over the period, The Nation newspaper reported.
BDI identified eight limitations preventing Thailand from making full use of big data, including fragmented storage of key national datasets across government agencies, shortages of highly skilled data professionals and limited public data literacy, cybersecurity risks and concerns over the Personal Data Protection Act affecting data-sharing consent, and inadequate legal provisions governing the disclosure of high-value digital information.
Among the others, big data has not been effectively applied to development at the local level; Thailand purchases and uses more foreign innovation than it develops for export; projects connecting information systems and developing platforms lack sustainable financial support; and there is no central open-data repository or sufficient collection of successful case studies for other sectors to adopt.
The strategy seeks to address these weaknesses by creating a more complete data ecosystem, covering the development, management, exchange and practical use of information.
It establishes on three main foundations for Thailand’s transition towards a data-driven economy – supporting participants in the data and AI industries by promoting research, innovation and service development; establishing common technical standards for managing and connecting databases; and a shared data-exchange infrastructure that government agencies and private organisations can use immediately.
The draft strategy went through consultations with stakeholders, including major government agencies and state enterprises. Participants included the Department of Business Development, the Revenue Department and National Telecom Public Company Limited./.
