Thailand is signaling an openness to collaborate with foreign businesses to facilitate technology exchange and drive smart city development in the country, with the signing of an MoU between the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa) of Thailand and the Austrian Technology Corporation (ATC), the trade association grouping Austrian tech companies.
Depa is tasked with establishing guidelines and recommendations for Thai smart city roadmaps and blueprints. In 2018, it collaborated with Urban Innovation Vienna, a think tank and smart city development agency, to organize a smart city workshop to bring best practices from Austria to Thailand. Crucially, Austrian cities are consistently recognized as among the world’s smartest and most livable, especially Vienna.
Within the new initiative, Depa and ATC will form a network of key stakeholders to raise public awareness about the digital economy and its ecosystem as well as smart city development. Depa also plans to commence joint pilot projects and a proof of concept project on improving the industrial competitiveness of both countries.
(Sources: Bangkok Post; Thailand Business News)
