Jirawan Boonperm, executive chairwoman of Sipa, said yesterday that the three projects were for tech start-ups, smart cities and locally developed software.

It will focus on digital technology for small and medium-sized enterprises to support their business and open up an online marketplace to support Otop (One Tambon, One Product) among communities in Thailand.

The tech start-up programme includes fostering collaborations among entrepreneurs and modernising the country’s infrastructure.

The agency will cooperate with universities nationwide to set up tech start-up clubs that will coach students to come up with new ideas to develop software.

Sipa will develop smart cities in Phuket, Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen. It will work with the Board of Investment to invite players to invest in the smart-city project to support the smart economy and sustainability for the long term.

It will set up an innovation park in the Phuket smart city to ensure large investment, higher marketing value and extensive growth of the software industry in the domestic and global markets.

The agency will support the upgrading of local software competencies in terms of business operations to meet international standards and the producing of qualified personnel to serve the country’s software industry.

“Sipa is pleased to accept every comment and suggestion in order to improve our operations to ensure quick success in transforming Thailand’s economy into a digital economy,” Jirawan said.

A survey by the Thailand Development Research Institute on the local software industry found that the market for software development and services was expected to expand by about 17 per cent to more than Bt69 billion this year from only Bt47.12 billion last year.

Custom software ranked tops in market value, rising 8.5 per cent to Bt17.54 billion in 2014 from Bt16.16 billion in 2013.

Other types of software services also displayed an uptrend of 9.1 per cent, suggesting that Thailand is on the verge of entering the digital age.