Thailand, Singapore partner on digital government

The governments of Thailand and Singapore will partner to share experiences on digital government, cyber security and start-up ecosystem, it was announced today.

Thailand’s Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Uttama Savanayana, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information.

“Both Thailand and Singapore are driving forward the same policy or strategy which is the digital transformation of our economies. E-government is of course a very important part of that strategy,” Dr Savanayana said, speaking exclusively to GovInsider.

Thailand has two broad goals for digital government. First, it wants to connect government agencies with technology, “so they can better share information and analytics”, he said.

The second is to build citizen-facing digital services. “Given those two goals, there are numerous activities that we can start exploring in terms of cooperation,” he said - including open data, big data analytics, and architecture of government systems.

Building a startup ecosystem is another area of collaboration between the two governments. “Thailand, like Singapore, is looking to promote startups, especially digital startups and in related industries,” Dr Savanayana said. A “key component” could be to look at developing mentoring for startups.

The tie-up will help local startups expand regionally. Thailand and Singapore will promote startups “not just in our respective countries, but throughout the region,” he said. “For startups, in particular, the space has no borders.”

Work will start immediately to identify “tangible projects” the two governments will work on together. “Our agencies have people who are responsible for the various activities, so they can connect immediately,” he said.