InfoQuest, (May 13, 2020) -- The Smart City Steering Committee meeting, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwan, was on the urgent agenda.The meeting approved the establishment of a sub-committee responsible for promoting and managing smart city projects, aiming to advance the development of smart city to achieve tangible results and achieve the goals set. Mr. Puttiphong Punnakan, minister of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DES), was appointed as chairman of the sub-committee to work with all departments to accelerate the development of smart cities to achieve concrete results, according to Maj Gen Patchasak Patirupanon, the deputy prime minister's assistant spokesman.
Regarding preparations for the implementation of the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) cooperation in 2020, the meeting approved the appointment of the executive secretary of the DES Ministry as national representative (NR), and the heads of the Digital Economy Promotion Agency, the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning, and the Energy Policy and Planning Office as chief smart city officers (CSCOs). These officials will also be designated as representatives of Thailand to attend the third annual ASCN meeting to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam on July 8-10, 2020 to promote cooperation in smart city development, which is also an important task for Thailand to achieve results and meets the current situation and the new normal requirements.
In addition, at the meeting, relevant orders issued by the Smart City Steering Committee, its past achievements and the progress it has made in various regions, were also reported. Of these, the meeting introduced the progress made in developing the 27 candidate smart cities across the country,and that in building smart cities in Phaholyothin Transportation Center in Bangkok, the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) and the Amata Nakorn Industrial Estate region in Chon Buri, and Phuket.
Mr. Puttiphong also put forward proposals to adjust the preferential rights granted by the Board of Investment (BOI) to attract more foreign investors to invest in Thailand. The meeting called for a comparison of the preferential rights and interests of different countries, particularly those of neighboring countries offering special preferential rights for foreign investment. Moreover, the preferential rights and interests provided must keep in line with the current situation, and take full account of the interests available to the country and the public.
Gen Prawit has urged the Smart City Steering Committee to promote smart city development as soon as possible, and has commissioned the DES Ministry, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Transport to speed up their efforts, aiming to promote common prosperity across the country, ensure that people can benefit from it across the board and on an equal footing,and improve the quality of people's lives, reduce inequality and promote sustainable development, so as to accommodate to the new normal caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and Thailand 4.0 strategy proposed in Thailand's 20-year national development strategic plan.
Source: InfoQuest, by Tanit Tongnok / Tanawat/ Rachada, translated by Xinhua Silk Road
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