BANGKOK: Thailand’s information and technology (IT) spending is on track for double-digit growth this year, helped by the national e-payment scheme and the development of a value-added economy of innovation and creativity or Thailand 4.0, says an industry expert. The growth is to come from both the public and private sectors, especially the financial sector, said Supakit Tiyawatchalapong, managing director of Computer Union, the IT service arm of SET-listed Saha-Union Group.
Despite the economic slowdown, he said state agencies and private firms are increasingly moving towards modernising their legacy systems to survive in the new era of competition and growth. Modernising data infrastructure, especially data centre updates and consolidation, adopting cloud computing technology and big data analytics can cut costs and enhance business agility and productivity as well as enable greater efficiency.
Mr Supakit said the government’s move to grant corporate income tax exemptions for companies that invest in computer software and machinery to improve their business operations will be another boon for IT spending. He said Computer Union expects to maintain single-digit growth this year, in line with GDP growth. Businesses are shifting their IT budgets to software and IT services to enable infrastructure management, rather than only hardware.
Thailand’s computer server market was valued at US$48 million in the first half of this year, compared with $60 million for all of 2015.
