Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, has come to the end of his mission to visit 3 countries in Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia This Microsoft Build: AI Day event was organized to promote Cloud Development and AI technology has become part of driving the digital economy in the region. It is estimated that AI will increase GDP by around US$1 trillion by 2030.
Home to more than 685 million people, Southeast Asia is where society as a whole is moving towards the digital age. This is followed by the need for infrastructure to expand to support the growing demand for online services.
Indonesia and Malaysia receive a total investment of 3.9 billion USD.
While Microsoft continues to push AI in Southeast Asia by training 2.5 million people, its promotion and investment strategies vary from country to country. If we look at what the company has published, we find that Indonesia and Malaysia are the two countries with confirmed investment in Cloud and AI infrastructure, which are USD 1.7 billion and USD 2.2 billion, respectively. This is the biggest investment during more than three decades of the company’s service in both countries.
for Malaysia This level of investment by Microsoft shows the readiness of the country in technology. This can be a factor for global Big Tech companies aiming to build a base for Cloud and AI in Southeast Asia.
On the Indonesian side They have the Golden Indonesia Vision 2045, with the aim of transforming the country into a key player on the global stage, and Microsoft sees the potential for Indonesia to play a role in the region’s digital economy. So I decided to invest.
If we look back at Thailand compared to Indonesia and Malaysia, it can be seen that the investment funds to support it have not yet been released clearly. But it’s just a statement of plans that Microsoft aims to help develop AI skills for 100,000 Thai people to support Thailand’s developer community. Along with the establishment of the company’s first Data Center which is about to open for service in the country.
Thailand not ready yet?
When the situation is ambiguous like this People in the Thai technology industry came out to express their opinion and reflect on what happened. Microsoft’s choice not to announce its investment in Thailand may not be a coincidence.
Teerachart Kotrakul, CEO of StockRadars and the Special Committee, considered studying ways to manage and promote the use of artificial intelligence technology to support future changes. In an interview with THE STANDARD WEALTH, he said that Thailand’s main problem at the moment in terms of artificial intelligence is the inadequacy of policy.
“To tell the truth, the challenge we are currently facing in terms of AI is that the relevant agencies are not well prepared. Because although Thailand has a National AI Committee (AI Committee), what happened is that the latest meeting of the agency was held when ChatGPT was recently launched. Or for about a year. And there was no discussion and preparation for doing anything on this issue,” Teerachat said.
Similar events have happened before when the world gave importance to new businesses. And in that wave, Thailand fell out of the process and became a follower. This is due to a lack of clarity and a serious lack of division of responsibilities between the relevant agencies.
Another interesting point that Teerachat mentioned is that Many people tend to think in a limited way of thinking that AI only equates to technology. In fact, AI is connected to many areas of life and society. which requires a comprehensive strategy in “Management of change” is taken seriously at national level. But the situation that happened today is when we misinterpreted the problem from the beginning by putting AI in the Ministry of Science and Technology. As a result, the economic policies determined by researchers may not be able to solve the problem directly.
“I don’t think that’s his strength. And what we should do is that Thailand must have an agency that is responsible for taking care of AI full time. Because of my past experience It’s becoming a side job that doesn’t get as much attention as it should.”
As well as Thailand’s willingness which is still lacking. The country’s structural risk factor is another dimension that can explain why Microsoft is hesitant to clearly announce an investment in Thailand as it has done in the other two countries By Dr Napat Jatusripitak Managing Director of the Future Studies Institute of Thailand give an opinion that Thai society has started to have a reduction in the number of workers due to the aging society. Economic problems also reduce the purchasing power of the population. Including the bigger picture that Thailand lacks strategic clarity about what our true strengths are. And will that strength be needed in the world?
These are all problems that Thailand must find a solution to quickly. And this is the reason why Thailand should speed up the pace of getting an agency to take responsibility for AI seriously because AI has now become a global agenda.
“We’ve made a lot of mistakes in the past. The closest thing is probably Thailand 4.0, where in the end there were just events. And no real change has happened. Hopefully this time, it’s a big issue in this country that people will be interested in. At least it would be good to let the people who will be affected by this wave of change know first,” Teerachart said in a personal Facebook post.
The former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs explains Neighbors are negotiating before Thailand
Chakkraphong Saengmanee, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs A former Board of Investment (BOI) mentioned in the case where there was news about Microsoft announcing an investment of US$2.2 billion in Cloud and AI in Malaysia, he said that information must be provided first, which Microsoft announced a long time ago it would open a data center in Malaysia, which has been a while before investment numbers were announced.
Focus on our Thailand I must say that in Thailand we just started counting from 1 yesterday, announcing that a Data Center would be established.
Chakkraphong also said that Of course, both countries are moving forward. But they are at different stages of investment. We are in stage 1, where our neighbor has spent time in Thailand freezing. We have all talked and discussed. As Prime Minister Settha has always said, we have not traded with foreign countries for ten years. We therefore need to speed up this approach.
“Today the Prime Minister announced a clear Cloud First Policy that will not allow the government sector to buy servers that are no longer needed. and the use of the Cloud must be resorted to instead in order to reduce government costs. and enables us to provide a better service It also causes AWS, Microsoft, etc. to compete with each other to establish centers in our country if they want to provide services in Thailand. So, I ask everyone not to think that Thailand has no potential. In the past, we may have started walking slowly because we have been standing still for a long time. But today, the government of Settha We are out running. and run on tirelessly,” Chakkraphong said.
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