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The Digital Government Development Agency (DGA) recently updated Thailand’s digital government progress to enhance nationwide digital services. They plan to expand their government application for all age groups, with over 400 million digital service usages, excluding infrastructure services.
The estimated economic value exceeds 8 billion baht. Their strategy focuses on more accessible, faster, and transparent access to government services, fostering a Smart Connector role. This enhances digital government levels, promoting a Smart Nation and Smart Life for Thai citizens, aligning with their quality of life improvement goals. Dr Supot Tiarawut, Director of DGA, presented these 2023 mission results, emphasising their commitment to effectively serving citizens, businesses, and government entities.
At the Government-to-Citizens (G2C) level, the DGA has linked over 112 government services via the government application, functioning as a comprehensive government SUPER APP. This app integrates services from various government agencies to address citizens’ needs effectively. It boasts more than 112 services, with over 7.5 million cumulative users and 607,041 downloads. This offers citizens a convenient single-channel solution for accessing government services, streamlining the process for all age groups and reducing the complexities associated with traditional government service usage. The plan for 2024 involves introducing critical services such as personal land tax checks, insurance information (Life/Non-Life), and interest payment services (pawning).
The Government Open Data Centre elevation aims to provide high-quality open datasets that cater to the populace’s needs and serve software developers, enabling their appropriate and optimal utilisation. This strategic move aims to enhance future competitiveness. Currently, there are 10,226 open datasets with 3,871,796 users.
The plan for 2024 includes boosting information exchange and utilisation among the public, private, and international sectors. Additionally, the Digital Transcript project, which offers digital transcripts, enhances convenience for students, reduces financial burdens, eases document verification processes for staff, and trims university expenditure on document issuance. This initiative has already produced over 1 million cards across 82 universities nationwide.
The DGA promotes transparency and public engagement through the central legal system, where the government seeks general feedback on law drafts and assesses their effectiveness. Over 1,000 regulations have been open for public comment, with 191,683 submissions. Additionally, the Tax Pai Pai system, providing government expenditure data, enhances public participation in monitoring corruption, with 16,187,604 projects disclosed.
In the G2B sector, the Biz Portal streamlines government-business interactions, benefiting SMEs. Over 124 government licenses have been obtained by 15,881 active operators, simplifying business startup processes. The Digital Entrepreneur Centre for Government Agencies (Me-D e-Marketplace) lists 595 digital technology entrepreneurs from various agencies for government procurement.
In G2G collaboration, the DGA enhances data sharing through the Government Data Exchange Centre (GDX), linking 13 agencies through 74 service data APIs with 133.44 million data exchanges. The Digital Government Personnel Development Institute (TDGA) has already benefited over 1,942,443 individuals, with plans to expand to local-level staff in 2024, offering region-specific digital courses and on-site training through the system with over 300,000 learners.
The Digital Local System is a crucial initiative, a cornerstone of local-level digital government adoption. It streamlines the administration and services of 659 Local Administrative Organisations, incorporating systems from 117 agencies. This enhances service provision, making it accessible and convenient nationwide, ultimately improving people’s quality of life in various regions.
During a visit to Bang Saray Subdistrict Municipality in Chonburi Province, the DGA observed the successful Digital Local System pilot project, which enables convenient access to services, reducing the need for physical visits to government offices and improving efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The initiative also established B-Buddy Bang Saray, a network of volunteers aiding those unfamiliar with digital systems to promote inclusivity.
In his closing remarks, Dr Supot highlighted these projects as examples of the DGA’s role in advancing Thailand towards becoming a Smart Nation, enhancing citizens’ quality of life. These efforts have consistently improved Thailand’s digital government development rankings assessed by the United Nations.
