Thailand’s Smart City Gathers Momentum

Under Thailand’s first Smart City Project, Nakhon Nayok province has recently signed a MOU to cover the entire province with broadband infrastructure and enhance the connection among local agencies with high speed internet via optical fibre.

Presiding over the signing ceremony, Nakhon Nayok Governor Dr Surachai Sirisaracam said that as the first Smart City, Nakhon Nayok would leverage ICT to strengthen the community’s competitiveness, and prepare the province for the Asean Economic Community in 2015. In partnership with True Corp, a broadband infrastructure will be built to cover four districts and 408 villages by end of the year.

“The province will receive a 2014 fiscal budget of THB 625 million (US$ 21.07 million) for the smart city project,” he revealed. After the new infrastructure has been established, the use of ICT will be promoted to increase competitiveness among citizens in the community, according to him.

Latest communication technology will also be provided to increase efficiency of local government agencies, improving the government’s network with wireless internet and cloud computing to accommodate multiple devices, he said. True Corp will further expand its 3G Plus Truemove H network, which currently covers 90 per cent of the province’s total 250,000 people. It will also expand the fibre network to connect 21 local agencies with high speed internet.

Apart from enjoying convenient internet access, citizens of Nakhon Nayok will benefit from a new e-commerce platform by True Corp that will modernize the market channel to promote local products.