เรียนท่านอาจารย์ ศ.ดร.จีระ หงส์ลดรมภ์
บทความจากหนังสือพิมพ์ Bangkok Post
ในเนื้อหาตอนแรกกล่าวถึงการยกเลิกงาน ICT Expo 2009 ซึ่งกระทรวง ICT เป็นคนยกเลิกอย่างกระทันหัน
ตอนที่สองกล่าวถึง นายกสมาคม ATCI (The Association of Thai ICT Industry) คุณบุญรักษ์ สรัคคานนท์ ได้ให้ข้อมูลว่า "งาน ICT Expo 2009 นี้มีหลายส่วนงานนอกจากงานแสดงสินค้าด้าน ICT ของหลายประเทศในแถบอาเชียน รวมถึงประเทศบังคลาเทศ ในกลุ่มความร่วมมือของ ASOCIO (กลุ่มความร่วมมือของสมาคม ICT ต่าง ๆ ทั่วโลก) ยังมีงานพบปะระหว่างนักธุรกิจ ICT ของไทยกับประเทศต่าง ๆ อีกหลายประเทศเพื่อส่งเสริมและสร้างโอกาสทางธุรกิจร่วมกัน ซึ่งหลาย ๆ ประเทศได้เตรียมพร้อมและยากมากที่จะสามารถจัดการนัดหมายได้แบบนี้ ดังนั้นถ้ายกเลิกทุก ๆ อย่างจะทำใกดความเสียหายและเสียชื่อเสียงอย่างมาก ดังนั้นในฐานะที่ ATCI ของประเทศไทยเป็นเจ้าภาพร่วม จึงได้ระดมความร่วมมือจากภาคเอกชน และภาครัฐส่วนที่เหลือเช่น SIPA มาวมมือกันจัดงานสัมมนาและการทำข้อตกลงร่วมกัน และก็ได้รับความร่วมมือจากหลาย ๆ ประเทศส่งตัวแทนเข้ามาร่วมกันและเซ็น MOU ร่วมกันหลายหน่วยงาน เช่น SIPA (ของไทย) เซ็น MOU ความร่วมมือกับหลายประเทศเช่น เวียตนาม ,มาเลเซีย,บังคลาเทศ เป็นต้น
ในงานสัมมนายังมีการบรรยายแนวโน้มด้าน ICT ของประเทศต่าง ๆ รวมทั้งการเซ็น MOU ของภาคเอกชนหลายรายของประเทศไทยและต่างประเทศ ซึ่งจะสามารถสานต่อเป็นโอกาสของนักธุรกิจต่อไปอย่างแน่นอน และทางสมาคม ATCI ของประเทศไทย โดยนายกสมาคมคุณบุญรักษ์ ก็รู้สึกขอบคุณทุก ๆ ฝ่ายที่ช่วยกันสานต่อจนประสบความสำเร็จด้วยดี และหวังเป็นอย่างยิ่งที่จะต่อเนื่องเป็นผลสำเร็จตามมาในหลาย ๆ ด้าน
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ธนพล ก่อฐานะ
(ถ้าสังเกตุให้ดีจะเห็นรูปของผมอยู่ทางซ้ายของรูปภาพ เพราะว่าผมอยู่ในเหตุการณ์ด้วยครับ)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/technews/21901/ict-nations-work-together
ICT nations work together
- Writer: Sasiwimon Boonruang
- Published: 12/08/2009 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: Database
The ICT Expo snafu hurt Thailand, but some face - and business - has been saved
The outcome of the Bangkok Business Visit programme, hosted by the Association of Thai ICT Industry (ATCI) last week, could go some way to healing the association's losses from the cancellation of ICT Expo 2009.
Representatives of five countries have built collaborations in dealing business with Thai IT firms, supported by Sipa.
The association had previously planned to stage the Bangkok International ICT & Broadcasting Summit 2009 as a co-located show at the ICT Expo, organised by the ICT Ministry. More than 200 foreign exhibitors were supposed to have joined the summit, about 100 of which had already made hotel and flight bookings.
ATCI had been informed of the abandonment of ICT Expo by the ICT Ministry, with no reason given, just a fortnight before the exhibition was scheduled to take place.
Coincidently, it was supposed to take place when concerns about the swine flu outbreak were at their peak, so visitors and exhibitors were advised that the cancellation of the summit was due to this.
In the meantime, ATCI has been held responsible for the expense of the show deposit and the cost of hotel and flight bookings of foreign delegates, with overall expenses coming to around 2 million baht.
"Thailand's reputation is at stake and thus we have to take responsibility so that the delegates from overseas can trust us for the events to be held in the future," ATCI president Bunrak Saraggananda told Database.
For some cases, such as the already-reserved accommodations, ATCI has helped negotiate with the hotels. But in some cases no refunds or compromises could be reached, leaving the association to pay for them.
Bunrak admitted that it's an opportunity loss for Thailand, as the business sector had expected to promote the ICT and broadcasting industries as both can generate demand for ICT business in the country.
ATCI president Bunrak Saraggananda.
This does hinder the promotion of ICT industry of Thailand, and consequently Vietnam is likely to benefit because the World IT Forum is scheduled to be staged in Hanoi over the next two weeks, and all foreign delegates are now flocking there instead.
However, the scaled-down version of the Thai event, the Bangkok Business Visit program on August 4-6, has brought success to Thailand. albeit to a lesser extent, as delegates from Bangladesh, Vietnam, Burma and Malaysia have recognised the potential of Thai IT companies.
Several bilateral and multilateral agreements have been signed. Five Thai firms have signed agreements with public and private sectors of those countries.
Bunrak noted that the last day of the program is a "company visit", in which those foreign executives have witnessed solutions developed by Thai companies such as the e-logistics system of NetBay, the virtual university by Digicraft, the tax payment application system of the Revenue Department by Summit Computer, as well as stock trading system, commodity banking system and Internet mobile payment applications.
Vietnam is very interested in the e-logistics system. FPT of Vietnam has signed an agreement with NetBay, which hosts the e-logistics gateway service for many stakeholders such as Customs Department, airline cargo, freight forwarders, banks and several organisations in Singapore and Philippines.
The e-payment system of MST has fascinated Bangladesh, said Bunrak, citing that Bangladesh has over 40,000 post offices which are considering offering e-payment services.
Global Web (Thailand) whose expertise in banking and professional software, has signed an agreement with MCC, the largest education and data centre in Burma.
The company's chief marketing officer Tanapol Kortana said the company has outsourced projects to MCC and both have worked closely for a couple years.
"MCC is a private company supported by the government and it has the largest number of students who can learn and fill real jobs in the company," he said, noting if the country become more open, there will be more joint ventures between the both parties.
This program focuses on five countries because all are members of the Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organisation (Asocio) with a long understanding of each other.
Significantly, Bunrak said all have the stated goal of promoting ICT industry collaboration in the region. The partnership can bring to resource sharing in terms of technology, knowhow, marketing and human resources.
"The MoU signing is beneficial to Thailand as we can play a proactive role in ICT industry, and expand business channels into the regional horizon encompassing populations in the hundreds of millions," said Bunrak.
"This will rapidly boost the ICT industry of Thailand. The MoU signing between ICT association members will extend the collaboration to reach up to millions of US dollars in business value."
Five major Asocio members at the meeting, comprised of more than 10,000 companies altogether, are Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS), Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (Pikom), Vietnam Software Association (Vinasa), Myanmar Computer Federation (MCF) and ATCI of Thailand.
According to Asocio vice president Abdullah H Kafi , a few excellent achievements have come out of the Bangkok Business Visit Program.
Signing agreements among several Asocio members at a single occasion was a first in the region, with a view to developing and exploring ICT.
The most critical issue for Asocio members who attended and signed agreements is to set five common issues, including ICT knowledge, research and market studies, to share and implement through the Asocio platform. Kafi noted that the next two years will be critical for Asocio. "We are expecting that there will be new leadership in its board from the developing countries," he said.
As representatives of developing countries and small and less advanced countries in ICT, compared to the few giant economies in the region, the new leadership will look forward to initiating and implementing challenging jobs.
Certainly this requires support from predecessors and as well as all Asocio economies. The groundwork has been set up in the meantime during the Bangkok Business Visit Program.
The members have proposed to have one more Asocio secretariat office in Bangkok. The present office in Japan is close to Korea, Mongolia and Taiwan, but for members in the South Asia including Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei, Thailand is the most appropriate location.
The Bangkok office will be an extended wing of the Asocio headquarters in Tokyo. As the regional secretariat office, the Thai capital embeds advantages such as easy access and a very good communication infrastructure for all Asocio members, which will expedite work procedure and implementation.
"The only problem that I see is communication, although the younger generation is growing up with better spoken English," noted Kafi.
In addition, Asocio has been conducting the 2020 ICT report, which has encompassed the ICT outlook of all 21 member countries.
Lucas Lim, Asocio secretary general, said the report is supposed to be a reference for the governments to serve as a tool for policy conducting.
There are comparisons among the countries, what they have done in the past, are doing at present and what they may do in future, Lim said, adding it will report on each nation's achievements and barriers. The key areas of the report cover convergence, ITES-BPO (business process outsourcing), green IT, e-governance, and workforce skills.
"We are now coming to the middle of the journey and will finish by the end of this year. The report will be official launched at the general assembly in Melbourne in December," said the secretary general.
Relate Search: ICT Expo 2009, Association of Thai ICT Industry
