Thailand's public, private sectors to jointly develop robotic industry

BANGKOK, August 31 (TNA) - The Thai government, through the Ministry of Industry, has joined forces with other public and private agencies to develop the country's robotic industry and automation system to boost national productivity and competitiveness. The Thai Ministry of Industry signed an agreement on the joint move with the 14 allied public and private agencies in Bangkok on August 30. Thai Industry Minister Uttama Savanayana told journalists that the agreed cooperation between the Thai public and the private sectors followed the Cabinet's recent resolution on the policy, aimed to drive the country's industrial sector forward towards the Thailand 4.0 era in the future. Uttama stressed that his ministry sees it necessary to urgently strengthen the Thai robotic industry and the automation system to become an industry for the future and to support other Thai industries targeted for further development by the government. The industry minister said his ministry has, thus, laid out a public roadmap on the national industrial development that comprises three main elements, including the demand stimulus, the supply stimulus and the further development of personnel, as well as the Thai robotic technology and the automation system for the production of more sophisticated robots in the future. For the demand stimulus, the minister acknowledged, the roadmap will promote and support domestic industries in both the production and the service sectors to use more robots and the automation system to enhance their efficiency and to boost domestic investment in the production of robots and the automation system, with the targeted investment set at 12 billion baht in the first year and at more than 200 billion baht over the next five years. For the supply stimulus, the roadmap will promote and support increased competitiveness of the national robotic industry and the automation system, especially for system integrators (SIs) tasked with the development of designs and the installation of the automation system to be used for more production of robots and automatic machines in the future. According to the minister, there are now about 200 SIs in Thailand, the number of which is targeted to increase to about 1,400 over the next five years, while the Center of Robotic Excellence (CoRE) will also be set up for allied agencies in Bangkok and provincial areas, as well as relevant leading private agencies overseas to jointly develop more robots and automatic machines, set at at least 150 robotic models for technological transfer to 200 Thai entrepreneurs over the next five years, during which at least 25,000 personnel in the Thai robotic industry will also be trained on relevant advanced technologies. The minister pointed out that the robotic industry and the automation system will upgrade not only the Thai agricultural sector to become the smart farming sector, but also other Thai sectors, namely medicine, logistics, tourism and services, while also becoming a solution to the problem of labor shortages in local industries in the future. (TNA)