Targeting five enterprise markets segments – property, retail, insurance, government agency, and independent software vendor (ISV) – with a customization strategy that enables customers to design their own cloudsystem with support from highly qualified service team skillful in the applications of leading technology vendors. All these services have been offered to more than 30 organizational customers through their business partners who represent a solid platform for becoming a market leader in the public cloud market in Thailand within three years, SiS said in a press statement.

Somchai Sittichaisrichart, Managing Director of SiS Distribution (Thailand) Public Company Limited., said, “According to IDC data, it is forecasted that worldwide public cloud service spending this year would reach 160 billion US dollars (or around five trillion baht), up 23.2% from 2017. In Thailand, it is estimated that cloud service and data center market would grow 35%, compared to last year. Business organizations constantly search for a service provider with highly experienced teams and local data centers which can deliver flexibility and ease of management and ensure compliance with relevant regulations. With over 20 years of experience in IT wholesale business and exposure to various types of organizations, today SiS is quite strong in terms of products and technologies. Also, we have global partners that are all leaders of cloud-based software and hardware vendors, and our key partner in Thailand, Interlink Telecom Pcl., is a leading fiber optic network and data center service provider in the country.”

“As of now, we’ve provided cloud services to more than 30 medium and large enterprises entirely through business partners. With combined strengths of SiS and Interlink Telecom, I’m confident that our cloud and service solutions presented today can deliver value-for-money and competitive pricing, flexibility in cloud service management, and international standards,” Mr. Somchai added.

Nattanai Anuntarumporn, Managing Director of Interlink Telecom Public Company Limited., said, “Today digital disruption has totally transformed business operations. The results of Pure Storage’s Evolution 2017 research revealed that 66% of businesses in Thailand planned to use more public cloud services within the next 18-24 months. Cloud will be used as a platform for enhancing the operational capacity of businesses in the modern era. A data center, which is a key component of cloud services, will also play an equally important role. Since we started this business, we’ve invested in two data centers. As for our partnership with SiS, I’m sure that this collaboration will be a driving force that can help upgrade the level of cloud management of business organizations. Our company uses both data centers for hosting SiS Cloud Services.Interlink Data Center has been constructed in accordance to a Tier 3 Data Center standard. The data center has been also certified for ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 27001. Our newest data center, Genesis data center, has also attained internationally recognized PCI and ISO/IEC 27001: 2013 certifications as well as Tier 3 certification from Uptime Institute, including the certification of design documents and constructed facility. These four standard certifications far exceed those of our competitors. As a result, our data center facilities are highly stable and secured. Furthermore, we can increase flexibility to meet ever-changing business needs in the digital era and ensure that the overall cost of business management is expended in the most cost-effective way. Also, we’re equipped to satisfy the needs of business customers effectively, and we can assure them that our data centers are the best in Thailand.”

Pantana Na Takuathung, general manager of Cloud Business Unit of SiS Distribution (Thailand) Public Company Limited., said, “SiS’s cloud services are superb because we are a local service provider and our data center is located here. So, our customers have easy access to our solutions for correcting, testing, and fine-tuning. Our primary focus is to provide flexibility for fine-tuning custom services to suit each customer’s needs and to ensure compliance with relevant regulations. For example, the financial sector’s regulation stipulates that data center must be located in the country. Most importantly, when using a local data center, data transmission speed is definitely faster than that of overseas service providers. Also, with Interlink Telecom as our strategic partner, we can offer high-speed fiber optic network services which connect our nationwide customers to our cloud. Currently, we’re providing six categories of services, including

●     Data Center on Cloud (IaaS)

●     Disaster Recoveryto Cloud (DRaaS)

●     BackuptoCloud (BaaS)

●     ContaineronCloud (PaaS)

●     VirtualDesktoponCloud

●     ERPonCloudPoweredbySAP B1

In addition, we have over 2,000 highly skilled and competent business partners in addition to

in-house teams of technical experts. Strategically, our cloud services are provided entirely through our business partners, and we always use leading technologies for the provision of our cloud services, such as VMware, Nutanix, Veeam, Trend Micro, HPE, Fortinet, and Microsoft. Moreover, SiS has a variety of products that enable customers to customize a cloud system to suit their own needs. Other key factors that contribute to our competitiveness and growth include flexible services and a business model that drives business growth for us and our business partners. In addition, our prices and specifications are also quite competitive. Recently, most business organizations that have enjoyed our cloud services are insurance companies, real estate developers, and government agencies. Most of them run their core business applications such as ERP on a cloud platform because they consider that security and stability as their main system requirements. Under these circumstances, I’m confident that we can expand our service provision to a greater number of independent software vendors (ISV) in 2019.”

SiS cloud services are available on two data centers of Interlink Telecom Pcl.: Interlink IDC and Genesis Data Center which meet ISO 270014:2013 and Tier 3 data center standards. Both data centers are interconnected with a high-speed fiber optic network, and it is equipped with an integrated security system for deterring denial-of-service (DoS), distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), web application firewall, IPS, and advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks. They also have backup and system recovery capacities in an event of disaster at the main sites. Notably, we guarantee delivery of high service quality with monthly uptime SLA of 99.90% and 24/7after-sales service.

Steve Chia’s firm, for example, has utilised artificial intelligence technology to develop a facial analytics system and software that integrates with other software to support biometric payments using smart vending machines.

Le Tach Pte’s system can track both females and males, as well as allow customers to pay via their smile. The result is that customers can now access and purchase goods from a smart vending machine by making a facial recognition payment – after first registering their face with their bank accounts. When they want to purchase products from a smart machine, they then need only smile in front of the machine. The machine will identify the customer and allow them to automatically pay the product charge.

The firm can now boast around 1,000 vending machines in Singapore, of which about 40 per cent are embedded with Internet of Things technology (IoT). The firm’s next step is to apply its facial recognition technology to support their older vending machines.

Octobox offers an alternative approach that also draws on digital technology – an automated vending kiosk that allows biometric palm payment. Customers who want to participate in the new e-payment system set up a personal account by registering a scan of their palm, explains Ng Kiat Seng, operations director at Octobox. When customers then visit a shop that has signed up for their biometric palm-payment vending machines, such as to purchase a food item, they just scan their palm at the display screen. The vending machine then will identify and verify the customer’s payment before they decide which products to select.

“Palm-print recognition technology can be deployed in many ways. As palm vein patterns are unique to every individual, a high level of accuracy and security is ensured,” said Ng. “Customers who want to participate in biometric payment just register for retail credit and their palm print will be taken. After registration, customers may access the kiosk door by scanning their palm print for identify verification. Once verified, the door will be unlocked automatically and once done, the door will close automatically. Payment will be auto-deducted once the door is closed and a bill summary (digital receipt) will be sent to the user’s registered email. It is easy to use.”

As well, “the system can track customer demand”, said Ng.

The smart-vending kiosk is embedded with a Wi-Fi connection. It is able to sell fragile items such as eggs, salads and fresh food. Customers can touch and feel the item before it is opened. As well, the system collects data and tracks sales, leading to increased customer satisfaction level through accurate demand forecast. As result, shops and businesses are able to understand the market conditions, identify market targets, and ensure cost savings by using corporate analytics and marketing analytics.

The firm has now partnered with DBS bank to provide smart vending machines. Its target markets are offices, national parks, condominiums, schools, hospitals and industrial areas.

Ng said the firm has spent one year to develop the Octobox smart vending kiosks, and will roll them out in Singapore starting next month with the target of 100 smart kiosks in the city by next June.

The firm has plans to next expand its smart vending kiosks to Taiwan and Malaysia.

The dramatic arrival of the $993 million spacecraft — designed to listen for quakes and tremors as a way to unveil the Red Planet’s inner mysteries, how it formed billions of years ago and, by extension, how other rocky planets like Earth took shape — marked the eighth successful landing on Mars in NASA’s history.

“Touchdown confirmed,” a mission control operator at NASA said, as pent-up anxiety and excitement surged through the room, and dozens of scientists leapt from their seats to embrace each other.

“It was intense and you could feel the emotion,” said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, in an interview on NASA television afterward.

Bridenstine also said President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence had watched on television and called to congratulate the US space agency for its hard work.

“Ultimately, the day is coming when we land humans on Mars,” Bridenstine said, adding that the goal is to do so by the mid 2030s.

The vehicle appeared to be in good shape, according to the first communications received from the Martian surface.

But as expected, the dust kicked up during the landing obscured the first picture InSight sent back, which was heavily flecked.

France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) made the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, the key element for sensing quakes.

The principal investigator on the French seismometer, Philippe Lognonne, said he was “relieved and very happy” at the outcome.

“I’ve just received confirmation that there are no rocks in front of the lander,” he told AFP.

Next, InSight must open its solar arrays, as NASA waits until later in the afternoon to learn if that final, crucial phase went as planned.

The spacecraft is meant to be solar-powered once it reaches the surface of Mars.

Entry, descent, landing

The spacecraft is NASA’s first to touch down on Earth’s neighboring planet since the Curiosity rover arrived in 2012.

More than half of 43 attempts to reach Mars with rovers, orbiters and probes by space agencies from around the world have failed.

NASA is the only space agency to have made it, and is invested in these robotic missions as a way to prepare for the first Mars-bound human explorers in the 2030s.

“We never take Mars for granted. Mars is hard,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for the science mission directorate, said on Sunday.

The nail-biting entry, descent and landing phase began at 11:47 am (1940 GMT) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, home to mission control for Mars InSight, and ended one second before 1953 GMT.

A carefully orchestrated sequence — already fully preprogrammed on board the spacecraft — unfolded over the following several minutes, coined “six and a half minutes of terror.”

Speeding faster than a bullet at 12,300 miles (19,800 kilometers) an hour, the heat-shielded spacecraft encountered scorching friction as it entered the Mars atmosphere.

The heat shield soared to a temperature of 2,700 Fahrenheit (about 1,500 Celsius) before it was discarded, the three landing legs deployed and the parachute popped out, easing InSight down to the Martian surface.

Goal: 3D map of inner Mars

InSight contains key instruments that were contributed by several European space agencies.

France’s CNES made the SEIS instrument, while the German Aerospace Center (DLR) provided a self-hammering mole that can burrow 16 feet (five meters) into the surface — farther than any instrument before — to measure heat flow.

Spain’s Centro de Astrobiologia made the spacecraft’s wind sensors, and three of InSight’s seismic instruments were designed and built in Britain.

Other significant contributions came from the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika and the Swiss Institute of Technology.

“It is wonderful news that the InSight spacecraft has landed safely on Mars,” said Sue Horne, head of space exploration at the UK Space Agency.

Together, the instruments will study geological processes, said Bruce Banerdt, InSight’s principal investigator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

By listening for tremors on Mars, whether from quakes or meteor impacts or even volcanic activity, scientists can learn more about its interior and reveal how the planet formed.

The goal is to map the inside of Mars in three dimensions, “so we understand the inside of Mars as well as we have come to understand the outside of Mars,” Banerdt told reporters.

In an online video posted on Monday, He Jiankui, a biological researcher, announced that twin baby girls, Lulu and Nana, born healthy a few weeks ago, were conceived through in vitro fertilization and genetically edited for immunity to HIV infection.

“The mother started her pregnancy by regular IVF with one difference. Right after sending her husband’s sperm into her eggs, we also sent in a little bit of protein and instructions for gene surgery,” said He, from Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, speaking in the video. “Lulu and Nana were just a single cell when the surgery removed the doorway through which HIV enters to infect people.”

He, believed to be in Hong Kong to attend the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, a three-day conference due to open on Tuesday, could not be reached for comment on Monday. But his announcement sparked heated controversy over concerns over medical ethics and effectiveness.

The Shenzhen Health and Family Planning Commission said on Monday that it had not received any ethical assessment application for the study, which is a prerequisite for such experiments.

The Associated Press reported on Monday that He sought and received approval for his project from the ethics committee of Shenzhen Harmonicare Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and an approval document from the hospital circulated online on Monday.

However, the Shenzhen commission said the hospital’s ethics committee was not valid because the hospital did not register the committee’s establishment with the commission as required.

The commission has started an ethics investigation and will release the results to the public, it said. The hospital would not comment on Monday.

Southern University of Science and Technology said on Monday that it was not aware of the research, as He did not report it to the school.

A worker places an embryo in a storage tube at a laboratory in Shenzhen. [Photo/Agencies]

The university said the academic council of its biology department, where He works as an associate professor, thinks that the research seriously violated academic ethics and rules. The university said it would immediately set up an independent investigation team for the matter.

A regulation released in 2016 by the former National Health and Family Planning Commission — now the National Health Commission — requires health institutions to establish ethics committees with authority over biological or medical research involving humans that would have to approve the research.

On Tuesday, the commission told its provincial branch in Guangdong to investigate the matter and handle it according to laws and regulations. The information should be made public in a timely way, it said in an official release.

Bai Hua, head of Baihualin, a nongovernmental organization that promotes the interests of people with HIV/AIDS, said on Monday that the parents of the twins were likely to have HIV.

He Jiankui spoke with Bai in April 2017, hoping to find people with HIV for the research, Bai said, adding that he spread the news and about 200 showed interest.

“Of the group infected with HIV, many have special conditions such as inability to conceive naturally, but the reality is that they cannot have babies through IVF in hospitals,” he said. “Many of them thought the research gave them a chance to have babies who do not have the risk of getting HIV.”

Mixed reactions

On Monday, more than 120 scholars from prestigious universities and institutes from China and abroad such as Tsinghua University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology strongly condemned the research in a signed statement, saying it lacks effective ethics oversight and amounts to human experiments.

In the statement published on weibo.com, they said any attempt to change human embryos with genetic editing and allow the birth of such babies entails a high degree of risk due to inaccuracies in existing editing technologies.

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said: “Genetic editing technology is far from mature and could have unforeseen consequences for the subjects.”

Some researchers are trying to use genetic editing technology to treat people infected with HIV, so the virus will not replicate and be transmitted to others, he said. “Animal experiments should be done to assess gains and risks for the subjects, before the possibility of doing this with humans.”

Some scientists in Hong Kong for the summit think it could induce serious problems for a person’s immune system, while others think people should not be overly scared because it would not affect the core genome.

Tsui Lap-chee, president of the Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong, said if one gene is edited, it will affect others that interact with it. And the whole genome, a collection of genes, may also be affected.

Robin Lovell-Badge, group leader and head of the Division of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute, said “gene editing is not something to be scared about”, and he doesn’t think what He has done will affect a human’s core genome. Side effects may not be very serious as there are millions of healthy people with the exact same mutation.

Zhou Mo in Shenzhen contributed to this story.

“There is very little room for things to go wrong,” said Rob Grover, head of the entry, descent and landing team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

If successful, the entry, descent and landing of the Mars InSight — designed to be the first mission to listen to the interior of another planet and reveal how rocky planets formed — will add another success to NASA’s record when it comes to sending spacecraft to Mars.

So far the United States is the only nation to have made it there, and only NASA’s unmanned Curiosity robotic rover is still tooling around on the surface.

But if it fails, it certainly won’t be the first.

Of 43 other international attempts to send orbiters, probes, landers or rovers to Mars, 25 have not made it. Either they crashed into the surface, missed their planned orbit, or disappeared after launch.

Countdown to Mars

There will not be any live video streaming of Mars Insight’s approach on Monday, and signals will be transmitted back to Earth on an eight-minute delay.

Nor can mission managers intervene if anything goes awry. The entire landing sequence is all pre-programmed into the on-board flight computer.

Here’s what to expect:

– At 11:40 am Pacific time (1940 GMT), the spacecraft separates from the cruise stage that carried it to Mars. A minute later, the spacecraft makes a turn to orient itself for atmospheric entry.

– At 1947 GMT the spacecraft is hurtling through space at a speed of 12,300 miles per hour (19,800 kilometers per hour) as it begins to enter Mars’ atmosphere.

– Two minutes later, friction with the atmosphere raises the heat shield temperature to its peak of 2,700 Fahrenheit (1,500 Celsius). This intense heat could cause temporary dropouts in radio signals.

– At 1951 GMT, the parachutes deploy. Fifteen seconds later, the heat shield separates from the spacecraft. Ten seconds on, the lander’s three legs deploy to get ready for touchdown.

– At 1952 GMT, a radar activates to sense the distance to the ground.

– At 1953 GMT, the first radar signal is expected, followed 20 second later by the spacecraft’s separation from the back shell and parachute. Then, the descent engines, known as retrorockets, begin to fire. InSight’s speed slows drastically, from 17 mph to a constant five mph (27 kph to eight kph) for its soft landing.

– Touchdown is expected at 1954 GMT.

– The first “beep” from the spacecraft’s X-band radio — indicating whether InSight survived the landing — is scheduled for 2001 GMT.

– The first image from the surface of Mars is expected at 2004 GMT. However, it’s possible this image may not arrive until Tuesday.

– The orbital pattern of the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, flying overhead, means NASA won’t know until 0135 GMT on Tuesday if InSight’s solar arrays have deployed or not. This step is crucial because the quake-sensor is powered by the Sun for its one-year mission.

With the attempt to increase the competitive capability of the country’s industries, CMKL University this year set up a major project to drive deep-tech training and expand work-based research, as well as to offer its first PhD and master’s degree courses.

CMKL University is a collaborative initiative of Carnegie Mellon University and King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL), established late last year to offer master’s and PhD degrees in electrical and computer engineering.

In its latest move, the university has announced it will expand its offerings with short-courses offering deep training in key potential technologies, and to continue to collaborate with the large corporates to increase their competitiveness through improving productivity efficiency.

Supan Tungjitkusolmun, president of CMKL University, said the mission of CMKL University is to contribute to raising the country’s competitiveness through empowering the capabilities of large corporates as well as to build vast deep-tech human resources.

It is now planning short training courses in artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, data analytics, and cybersecurity, to be offered to the public with an aim to create a significant number of skilled workers for the future.

The school this year joined hands with the Electronic Transaction Development Agency (ETDA)

to teach cybersecurity training courses.

Supan said they aim to offer deep-tech training courses to the general public as well as tailor-made course for agencies and organisations. The public component will be for executives, deep-tech staff, operations workers and university students. The tailor-made course would be calibrated for private-sector organisations and government agencies.

By 2019, it aims to train 200 to 300 people, using three to four organisations to deliver the tailor-made courses.

The school is also committed to expand its collaboration with the large corporates for work-based research. The idea behind work-based research is to pick a real-world problem or need and to conduct research and development to address the painpoint but also to empower business efficiency to achieve the company’s goals.

“Our role is to be a technology enabler for the corporates, and we have offered this kind of service since March this year,” said Supan.

Since being established, the school has worked with Thai Beverage Public Co Ltd (ThaiBev) and Betagro Group. Both are five-year collaborations.

The goal for the ThaiBev link-up is to improve logistics efficiency and productivity, as well as to create new products and services. Needed technologies include data analytics, artificial intelligent and machine learning.

Meanwhile, Betagro Group’s goal for work-based research is to empower its smart-farm strategy. It needs technology to increase product safety while also reducing costs. Among the technologies they need are Internet of Things (IoT), cloud services and Big Data analytics.

The collaborations are done under a team-driven approach, with teams composed of both PhD and master’s students along with lecturers and researchers from both KMITL and Carnegie Mellon University, together with human resources from the companies.

“We all work together from zero until we achieve the goal – that why it needs (five years) time in collaboration. We are all needed to create an impact to the business in order to finally impact the country’s competitiveness,” said Supan.

Moreover, CMKL University has also joined hands with ETDA to conduct co-research and development in cybersecurity and forensic data analytics. Its one-year project started in mid-2018.

“This kind of collaboration is to create a real impact on every dimension, including building the deep-tech human resource capabilities, addressing the real problems and needs of organisations, and creating an impact on the country’s competitive advantage as a whole,” said Supan.

By 2019, CMKL University aims to double the number of collaborations between organisations and agencies both in the private and government sectors. For example, it is now planning work with Money Table around blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies.

Applications now open

Applications are now open for PhD and master’s students at CMKL University. Applications are being taken until December, with the semester starting in August 2019.

Students enrolled in both the five-year doctorate and the two-year master’s programmes will take classes in both Pittsburgh and Thailand equally. It aims for 25 MS students and 10 PhD students for its first semester.

CMKL University is positioning itself as a world-class research and education platform for disruptive innovation that offers unique hands-on education and transformative research. By applying Carnegie Mellon’s globally acclaimed research and education programmes within a regional context, the school aims to tackle challenges that will drive the future development of Thailand and the Asean community.

Supan said the role of the university is to work with the private sector in search of their painpoints and needs, and then to together set goals and work toward a completed outcome.

Orathai Sangpetch, CMKL’s vice president of research and strategy, says the school’s role is to create the ready-to-use talents for the country and to build the knowledge needed to solve the problems of industry and other businesses.

“The PhD/MS programmes will address long-term problems, while short-course training is to address short-term problems,” said Orathai.

She said students and others who pass through CMKL University will become super researcher who can address the real-world problems of the sector, and function as deep-tech experts in electrical and computer engineering.

“We have set up CMKL University as the platform to create and develop advanced tech talents for the country.

“We are not only an educational institute,” said Orathai.

The inter-university collaboration will expand the human resources capacity for both Carnegie Mellon University and King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang.

“CMKL University aims to be the hub for all of Southeast Asia, not only for Thailand. We plan to attract students from all countries in the region to study with us,” said Orathai.

Lastly, to achieve the university’s goal it sees a need to host an annual tech summit in order to create awareness and build knowledge and talent capability. The “CMKL Tech Summit 2018” will kick off on December 13. It aims to boost the tech knowledge of individuals and corporates to better deal with disruption in the era of digital transformation.

Individuals and organisations at the summit will have a chance to upgrade themselves and remove momentary pain points. The main concept will focus on artificial intelligence (AI), making this event the first AI flagship seminar in Thailand.

“The main problems facing corporates in this digital transformation era are the lack of talent in the tech field and the lack of understanding in technology adaptation,” said Supan.

“As the leading technology university to collaborate with the world’s first AI software developer – Carnegie Mellon University – we decided to hold the seminar to help enhance the know-how and the competitiveness for both corporates and individuals.”

CMKL Tech Summit 2018 has gathered experts across the range of technologies and AI from the private and educational sectors from Thailand and worldwide. They include Thai Beverage Pcl and Betagro Pcl. Also sharing insights will be Dr Surakiart Sathirathai, the board chair of CMKL University, and a team of professors from Carnegie Mellon University.

The National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) is now working with the Science Park Promotion Agency (SPA) to enhance the incubation capability of their technology and to upgrade business incubation centres throughout the country.

The move aims to improve both the incubation process and its management in order to enhance incubation capacities in science and technology, and to ensure that innovative startups and entrepreneurs get useful benefits.

The improvement process is done using the “maturity model” provided by Creeda Projects, which has 35 years of experience in business incubation, acceleration, entrepreneurship, innovation and SME development.

Chalermpol Tuchinda, vice president of the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), said the collaboration aims to improve incubation and management capability of the agency’s Business Incubation Centre (BIC) and SPA’s 14 technology-business incubation centres located at universities nationwide.

The project has been piloted at the first technology-business incubation centres, five universities and Science Park Thailand.

It will be rolled out at the remaining centres soon.

The benefit of this improvement is deliver better incubation services to startups and entrepreneurs and to improve the management of incubation centres.

“Since offering technology business incubation services is mission of both NSTDA and SPA, we also have our own incubation centre, said Chalermpol.

“In order to keep our incubating capability up-to-date with the dynamic digital transformation, we realised that we needed to upgrade our capability.”

Startups and entrepreneurs have different needs at each of their three stages – seeding, growth, and maturity. So three different programmes are normally used to match the stages to science, technology, innovation technology, and business incubation services, said Sansanee Huabsomboom, the division director for Technology Business Incubation Centres at NSTDA.

“Each year, we offer pre-incubation to 80 projects and to provide incubation programme for 40 companies per year,” said Sansanee. “Each stays with us one to three years, depending on how fast they grow. The post incubation period is event-driven by mutual companies.”

Centre management boosted 

It is challenging to offer incubation service to the different companies in different stages of growth, she says, since they have different needs and require different types of incubation programmes. Therefore, NSTDA and SPA have to join hands to improve incubation centre management to enhance incubation services. Eventually, startups and entrepreneurs will benefit from the improvements.

Each year, with the help of the incubation centres’ services, the country has received an economic impact of between Bt500 million and Bt600 million.

Apart from offering incubation services, Sansanee said that NSTDA also provides an accelerator programme with seed funding. It started last year with a food accelerator programme that invited all companies in the food value supply chain and related industries such as packaging and ingredients to join.

The Food Accelerator Programme is a three-year programme intended to give three years of support to startups with revenues of Bt5 million and above, and seen as having the potential to grow. The aim is to help these companies to double their growth.

“We kicked off this programme last year, and 15 companies joined. Then we did our annual evaluation and found that only nine companies could continue in the programme. So we recruited five more companies this year to join,” said Sansanee.

Apart from the accelerator programme, Chalermpol added, the NSTDA also offers grants as matching funds to startups and entrepreneurs in science, technology and innovation fields.

The grant is around 75 per cent of an applicant’s total project valuation up to Bt800,000.

This grant was for the marketing budget, rather than for the product and service development budget. By 2017, it had provided grants to 80 companies that together created revenues of up to Bt300 million, and were expected to together create revenues of Bt900 million in 2018.