The initiatives were announced at the first Google for Thailand event, held in Bangkok under the theme “Leave no Thai behind”, aimed at promoting equality of digital access.

Ben King, country director of Google Thailand, said at the event that the Google’s initiatives would span across the four pillars: access, education, content and products and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

“They were designed to ensure that all Thais would have opportunities and know-how to access technology and use it to build livelihoods,” he said.

King said Thailand is rapidly growing digital economy. He showed a projection of digital economic opportunity in Thailand worth US$37 billion, while the opportunity in Southeast Asia is US$200 billion.

Moreover, Thailand is No 5 for average peak connection speed, or 106 MB per second. Ranking first is Singapore, followed by Hong Kong, South Korea, and Qatar, according to Akamai Technologies, a content delivery network and cloud service provider.

Thailand is second for highest mobile Internet adoption in Asean, having 90 per cent of 3G/4G coverage across the country.

The event was also attended by Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, who delivered a speech on the vital role that digital technology will play in achieving the government’s 20-year national strategic plan. However, he urged netizens to learn how to use the benefits of digital technology but not be used by it.

One of the highlights launched yesterday was Google Station, a high-speed public Wi-Fi programme undertaken in Thailand, in partnership with CAT Telecom, sponsored by Unilever.

Google Station will start in 10 venues across Bangkok and in two provinces, Pichit and Loei, and will be expanded to other parts of the country in the coming months, allowing more Thais to access a free and reliable Internet connection, said Anjali Joshi, vice president of product management.

Currently, locations available for the free Wi-Fi services in Bangkok include Hualamphong train station and Megabangna shopping mall. To register, people should go to @FreeGoogleStation-CAT Wi-Fi system and enter their mobile number and name.

Thailand is the fourth country to have Google Station, after India, Indonesia and Mexico.

King also announced the construction of the Academy Bangkok – A Google Space, a digital skills training facility at True Digital Park in Bangkok.

It will open later this year and will be a new training venue for participants of the Google Ignite programme, a two-month digital marketing training course that prepares university students for careers in Thai companies.

Google also introduced a new feature, Motorbike Mode, for Google Maps in Thailand.

Krish Vitaldevara, product lead for Google Maps, said the new feature will help Thailand’s 20 million motorcyclists to plan routes taking into account shortcuts and narrow roads that only motorbikes and scooters can take and offers more accurate travel times that reflect motorbike speed.

To support Thailand’s ever-growing YouTube community, Mukpim Anantachai, head of YouTube partnership, YouTube Thailand, said the company would relaunch the YouTube Pop-Up Space in Bangkok in November to give Thai creators access to state-of-the-art production facilities.

During the announcement, Mukpim also unveiled a new data plan in partnership with AIS. It will offer unlimited data packs at Bt59 per month for YouTube Go, an app that allows viewers in Thailand to watch and share YouTube videos even with slow or no Internet connection.

Lastly, Google Thailand announced collaboration with Siam Commercial Bank to allow SMEs to sign up and be verified for Google My Business, a free business listing on Google Search and Google Maps, through SCB personnel who will visit SMEs at their stores.

The new Nutanix Velocity program includes accelerated selling processes, incentives and marketing investments for strategic, mid-market focused channel partners, Nutanix said in a press statement.

As part of the program, Lenovo is joining forces with Nutanix to provide specific HX product bundles for mid-market customers based on the HX appliance. In addition, the two companies are launching a new hyperconverged software-ready product offering designed specifically for enterprise customers called Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Certified Nodes, the statement added.

The Nutanix Velocity channel partner program offers partners more incentives and opportunities to provide the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS software to customers in the mid-market segment. Through this new program, Nutanix is enabling partners to demonstrate to customers in the mid-market how hyperconverged infrastructure can help provide an elegant solution to their needs without the cost and security challenges they may face with public cloud-only models.

Nutanix is also working with Lenovo to provide mid-market customers with HX product bundles, which include a faster purchasing path for pre-defined bundles and various configurations at an attractive price.Partners can use these offerings to drive business momentum through streamlined sizing and quoting.

In addition, Nutanix and Lenovo are now offering Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Certified Nodes, which specifically address customer needs in the enterprise segment. Many enterprise customers want to move to more flexible architectures as their legacy infrastructure needs to be replaced. The offerings from Lenovo and Nutanix on HX Certified Nodes provide enterprises with choices of software licensing terms and conditions that are most optimal for their business needs. These customers are now able to purchase the Nutanix software license separately from the Lenovo ThinkAgile HX platform with access to software support directly from Nutanix’s award-winning customer service organizations. The Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Certified Nodes provide a robust offering for partners on which they can build their own deployment and professional services opportunities to increase customer value on solutions built on HX Certified Nodes. The Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Certified Nodes offering is also eligible for the Nutanix New Customer Acquisition Rebate program announced to channel partners earlier this year, the press statement said.

“With the launch of our new Velocity program, Nutanix is empowering its partners to more easily offer Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS software to the mid-market segment,” said Rodney Foreman, Vice President of Global Channel Sales, Nutanix. “Legacy channel programs have revolved around benefits based only on revenue achievement, but Nutanix is looking to prioritize and reward partners who invest the most in our business. We’re thrilled that Lenovo also shares this philosophy and has partnered with us to increase sales in Lenovo HX appliances that leverage Nutanix software.”

“Since announcing our partnership with Nutanix less than three years ago, our ThinkAgile HX business has seen huge growth in customer count and revenue,” said Paige Garner, Vice President, Worldwide Sales Operations Lenovo Data Center Group. “We are a fast-growing partner for Nutanix and we look forward to continuing this growth with our work on the Velocity program. Together, we can empower customers to embrace hyperconverged infrastructure with the HX product bundles and the new HX Certified Nodes portfolio.”

This is why, as I enter my third decade in Thailand’s industrial sector, I believe it is more vital than ever for every business to observe international megatrends – changes which will transform societies and influence the direction of life around the globe.

By adopting a mindset that views megatrends as opportunities, Thailand can leapfrog the regional competition, becoming a major player by creating enduring solutions to the challenges of the present and future.

In our business, we identify five major solutions that align with the mega trends shaping the world. We are shaping our business to address these trends, which include renewable energy, electric vehicle power management, energy storage, industrial automation, and data center infrastructure. We have invested heavily in these solutions, and are now on the cusp of reaping the rewards for these investments.

Among the most significant new directions is the growth of renewable solar and wind energy, as higher demand and improved production processes have lowered investment costs to the point that they are not just environmentally friendly, but also the most financially sustainable choice. Renewable capacity is increasing dramatically every year, with solar energy demonstrating an impressive 32 per cent increase in 2017, and wind at 10 per cent increase.

The first steps in widespread renewable adoption will be the introduction of microgrids based primarily on renewable energy. Since these can be connected to or separate from primary power grids, they are particularly crucial to the task of modernizing and improving the quality of life in islands and rural areas, where economic development has been hampered by unreliable electrification. Delta has entered on the ground floor of this movement by investing in components for renewable energy generators, as well as the Energy Storage Systems (ESS) which support microgrids, creating stability by storing reserve energy to be allocated where and when it is needed most.

In an ideal complement to renewable energy, electric vehicles (EVs) are at the beginning of a worldwide boom, with global sales in Q1 2018 59 per cent higher than Q1 2017, on track to make up 3 per cent of vehicle sales in December, leading to 5 million electric cars on the world’s roads by year’s end. Countries like Norway, where EVs make up over half of new car sales, prove that broad EV adoption is possible with the right incentives and infrastructure. New models like the Tesla Model-3 and the second-generation Nissan Leaf have launched to remarkable success in the US, Europe, and Asia. However, these models and others continue to experience production shortages as demand outstrips present manufacturing capabilities. That means that Thailand’s automotive industry, the most developed in Southeast Asia, has a chance to secure its global position by shifting gears to support these companies.

As Norway’s example shows, a major factor in the adoption of any new technology is its convenience. This is why Delta has partnered with governments in Thailand and India to produce electric vehicle chargers, which will provide the infrastructure needed for electric cars to take their place as the transport of the future.

These vehicles of the future will also be built in factories of the future, as industrial automation continues to expand across the world, particularly in the automotive and electronic industries which account for over 60 per cent of industrial robots in use today. Soon, however, these robots will inevitably spread to other sectors, as their sales are expected to increase 15 per cent each year up to 2020, with Asia having the biggest growth sector at an average of 19 per cent annually. Global industrial robot sales more than doubled from 2006 to 2016, rising from 112,000 to 294,000 units, and an estimated 521,000 robots will be sold in 2020.

Automated robots such as those built by Delta and used in many factories – including our own – will produce higher quality products faster, cheaper, and safer than possible by human hand. The shift to automation understandably creates some anxiety, but with the right preparation it is not to be feared. Thailand’s aging population cannot indefinitely sustain an economy based on manual labor and faces an urgent need to transform to a knowledge-based Industry 4.0 economy. Automation will free humans from dangerous menial tasks while replacing manual labor with higher-skilled, better-paying jobs, key to satisfying our increasingly educated workforce.

That workforce is also transcending barriers by doing more of its business online. In 2017, global internet use surpassed 50 per cent, with the greatest gains in mobile internet. This digital growth has created an audience that is always connected even when it is geographically dispersed, and opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs to connect with that audience abound. Cloud computing and the burgeoning Internet of Things are integrating connectedness into new areas of everyday life. All of these require ever more ability to store and process data, which is estimated to increase to 19.5 ZB by 2021, with advantages going to those companies that can make effective use of the data they store. Delta’s efforts to improve the speed and power efficiency of datacenters translate to building the backbone of the web which now forms so much of the background of our lives.

The megatrends discussed above are all interrelated. Microgrids offering clean, stable energy will allow for greater electrification and internet connectedness. Automation will improve quality and reduce costs of electric vehicles and related components, leading, as we have seen with the lithium battery, to wider adoption of these technologies. Together they represent great global paradigm shifts, to which Thai industry must find smart ways to adapt. Our stability, development-friendly environment, and diverse opportunities for growth make us uniquely situated to do so. And if we do, Thai industry can light the way to the future of our region and the world.

(Hsieh Shen-yen is president of Delta Electronics (Thailand), a 30-year-old company focused on exporting innovations made in Thailand to the world.)

The London-listed aerospace giant, which is based in Derby in central England, showed off the plans at the Farnborough Airshow for the first time, as other players also rush into the market segment.

Rolls said it hoped to manufacture a prototype version of its electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) vehicle within the next 18 months, and could potentially take to the skies in the early 2020s.

The Rolls-Royce EVTOL plane will seat four or five people, with a flying range of 500 miles (805 kilometres) and a top speed of 200 miles per hour.

“In this market, you will see something like this flying within three to five years, and we will demonstrate the system in two years,” said Rob Watson, head of Rolls-Royce’s electrical team.

“At the end of next year we will be flight ready,” he told AFP at the group’s Farnborough chalet.

The hybrid vehicle, which has so far cost single-digit millions of pounds to develop, will use a traditional gas turbine engine with an electrical system wrapped around it.

Rolls-Royce is also researching an all-electric product but that is not as advanced as the EVTOL offering.

“There is an emerging market for all-electric planes but we believe that you need a level of requirement that an all electric system cannot really provide today,” Watson told AFP.

Hybrid propulsion

“So, all-electric is the way to hop around within a city, but if you want to travel 200 or 300 miles, if you want to run London to Paris, then you are going to want to run something that will give you that range.

“So we think you will see hybrid propulsion systems starting to make this market.”

Rolls is not alone in the hybrid “flying taxi” marketplace.

Other companies researching the sector include US taxi-hailing company Uber, the Google-backed Kitty Hawk project, Lilium Aviation in Germany, Safran in France, and Honeywell in the United States.

The aerospace sector’s push into electric propulsion has drawn comparisons with the automotive industry, where electric cars are gaining ground in terms of popularity and performance.

“Think of it like the car industry. Historically everybody had an internal combustion engine. over time you add more electric capability to it and then you start to see electric cars,” added Watson.

“In the same way, we are introducing a hybrid propulsion system into this market because we think it gives you that range and capability.”

Potential disruptor

David Stewart, aviation and aerospace adviser and partner at Oliver Wyman, told AFP that the aerospace sector was facing pressure to become more environmentally friendly.

“I think that electrical propulsion is a potential disruptor to the way things are powered,” said Stewart, who will speak at Farnborough on Tuesday.

“We are quite a long way for electrical power to be a replacement for kerosene, but never say never.”

He cautioned that Rolls-Royce’s flying taxi concept was in reality a development platform to test the new technology.

The real market opportunity will likely be a scaled up version of 10-15 seats that can serve a wider variety of applications, according to Stewart.

Watson added: “Over time you’ve got more electrical capability for bigger and bigger aircraft — and that’s really what we are thinking about today.

“We are learning today about the technology that we will need tomorrow.”

Hyperbole aside, the rise of the robots in the form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is certainly improving sectors such as manufacturing and transport and logistics (T&L). For example, robots can perform mundane, repetitive tasks without loss of concentration or risk of error. They might also be able to access hard to reach spaces and assess stock count with greater accuracy.

Couple this with the fact McKinsey predicts 800 million jobs could be lost by 2030, and you will understand why workers are feeling threatened by the future. This is just a hypothesis. In fact, across both manufacturing and transport and logistics T&L sectors, it’s obvious that automation will increase productivity, and the human touch will always be needed.

The Human Touch in Manufacturing

With the advent of Manufacturing 4.0, comprising data capture and exchange by using technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), cloud computing and cognitive computing, the automated industry is changing for the better.

This new approach will enable executives to have complete visibility of operations and the ability to capture every process in the form of data. This information – ultimately analyzed by humans, not machines – will make production more efficient, and in turn drive cost savings. The use of IIoT can also monitor the stock of raw materials in real time. This will enable staff to oversee and order new stock, leading to continuous productivity and avoiding a break in the chain when, say, a paint or car part is running low.

The automotive industry is a key sector in manufacturing to take advantage of automation to drive production. Working with Zebra Technologies’ solutions, Troy Design & Manufacturing (TDM), a Detroit-based  metal stamping subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, needed an automated tracking system to monitor and guide each step of over 150 daily vehicle conversions at its Chicago-based modification center.

TDM worked with Zebra partner, Lowry Solutions, to implement robust vehicle tracking by using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. Zebra fixed RFID readers and antennae were integrated were chosen because of Lowry’s relationship and familiarity with its products, plus Troy Design & Manufacturing had done extensive research and heard numerous industry recommendations favoring Zebra over its competitors.

The result was that automated work-flow enabled by RFID led to more precise visibility and data collection. This set a higher standard for facility efficiency and output. With its vehicle tracking infrastructure deployed, TDM found numerous advantages with RFID automation. Operators are now more focused on performing their tasks and their workflow is streamlined with less paper-based documentation and tracking duties.

Going forward, TDM hopes to become more innovative, especially with its implementation of RFID. With its abandonment of manual, paper-based tracking, over 90% of its operations are already automated, overseen by human eyes, resulting in improved productivity.

In summary, as highlighted by TDM, automation will drive better processes at every stage of manufacturing, but it remains fundamental that human interaction is essential to respond and make decisions on how data is best used for maximum efficiency.

The Human Touch in T&L 

Automation has many clear benefits for T&L. In the warehouse, automation driven by mobile computers and scanners can ensure that the most up-to-date stock inventory is available for staff. This is important as consumers are now demanding within-the-hour delivery. Quite a challenge.

Inventory checks have become more efficient due to the use of mobile computers. The latest versions of this technology can scan bar codes up to 70 feet away, ensuring that human time – and of course, energy – is spared to do more work in other areas of the warehouse.

The next stage after smooth warehouse operations is delivery logistics. Here, automation can help carriers of freight and parcels across ground and air to build a smarter, more connected distribution network, resulting in real-time informed decision-making that improves loading operations.

By capturing data such as load density and trailer capacity, organizations can now gain valuable insights into achieving peak levels of performance and profitability. During this process, human interaction monitors how full freight is and human thinking is needed to decide when the vehicles can leave to make vital deliveries.

This new level of intelligence planning is very important today, as logistics companies must keep up with the rise of the ‘on-demand economy’, driven by e-commerce and the expectation of instant delivery. This drives the desire for solutions that can further optimize speed, accuracy and efficiency of the loading process.

The Future 

Automation will bring many new exciting developments to manufacturing and T&L. As Manufacturing 4.0 arises, so too will Manufacturing 5.0, pushing IoT to drive even more cost-efficient operations. Technology will drive visibility and data-capture to improve productivity.

There is naturally cause for some concern that humans could be replaced by machines, but it is also possible that automation can create new jobs. For example, as the use of drone technology increases in delivery of consumer goods, linking back to T&L, it’s feasible that we’ll see a rise in expert drone managers. It isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds.

Additionally, in the warehouse, if there is to be a rise in driverless forklift trucks, it’s very probable that those former drivers will be deployed in roles to monitor operations. Or better still, their human time can be spent doing more challenging problem-solving work within an organization.

What is clear is that automation will need some form of human response or interaction to run smoothly. This will ultimately save some traditional roles and no doubt create new roles and drive redeployment where it is needed. We are approaching a brave new AI world, but there will always be demand to have a human mind at the center of efficient operations.

Brad Smith made a case for a government initiative to lay out rules for proper use of facial recognition technology, with input from a bipartisan and expert commission.

Facial recognition technology raises significant human rights and privacy concerns, Smith said in a blog post.

“Imagine a government tracking everywhere you walked over the past month without your permission or knowledge,” he said.

“Imagine a database of everyone who attended a political rally that constitutes the very essence of free speech.”

It could become possible for businesses to track visitors or customers, using what they see for decisions regarding credit scores, lending decisions, or employment opportunities without telling people.

He said scenarios portrayed in fictional films such as “Minority Report,” “Enemy of the State,” and even the George Orwell dystopian classic “1984” are “on the verge of becoming possible.”

“These issues heighten responsibility for tech companies that create these products,” Smith said.

“In our view, they also call for thoughtful government regulation and for the development of norms around acceptable uses.”

Microsoft and other tech companies have used facial recognition technology for years for tasks such as organizing digital photographs.

But the ability of computers to recognize people’s faces is improving rapidly, along with the ubiquity of cameras and the power of computing hosted in the internet cloud to figure out identities in real time.

While the technology can be used for good, perhaps finding missing children or known terrorists, it can also be abused.

“It may seem unusual for a company to ask for government regulation of its products, but there are many markets where thoughtful regulation contributes to a healthier dynamic for consumers and producers alike,” Smith said.

“It seems especially important to pursue thoughtful government regulation of facial recognition technology, given its broad societal ramifications and potential for abuse.”

Concerns about misuse prompted Microsoft to “move deliberately” with facial recognition consulting or contracting, according to Smith.

“This has led us to turn down some customer requests for deployments of this service where we’ve concluded that there are greater human rights risks,” Smith said.

Andrew Lai, co-founder and accelerator director of SproutX, said that agtech and food-tech are among the high-potential fields today. According to McKinsey, agriculture was ranked as the world’s least digitised industry. Agriculture has more opportunities than any other industries for digitisation and improving productivity. Agri-food has become a global trend.

“It is real disruption happening in food and agriculture today; it is not something coming up in the future, and not something that is happening in a different industry,” said Lai.

The agri-food start-up sectors vary from biotech, food e-commerce, Internet of Things and software. Consumer technologies have enormous potential to transform smallholder farming.

“Around 40 per cent of the world’s labour force is engaged in the agriculture sector and many of them are unbanked. They do not have a bank account. They cannot access financial services. AgUnity is an agricultural unbank. It provides free smartphones to farmers who can record their data. Based on their data they can be provided loans, as that would reveal their production yields, profit and risk,” Lai said.

Another case is Sundrop, which is growing tomatoes in the desert. It is a global leader in sustainable agriculture, growing fresh fruits and vegetables using renewable inputs.

Asia Pacific is most impacted by food security. There are more people living in the Asia Pacific region than outside the region, while most agri-food start-ups – around 62 per cent – are in the United States.

Sean Trairatkeyoon, chief executive officer and co-founder of JuiceInno8, a deep-tech start-up with focus on food biotechnology space, said that the number of deals in food/agtech space in the past five years was rising.

As an agricultural nation, and to launch a foodtech and agtech revolution, Thailand requires a huge leap. As the second-largest exporter of sugar and rice and the third-largest producer of shrimp, there are only about US$500,000 (Bt16.6 million) worth of food/agtech start-up investment and there is only one deal. None of them is a food/agtech accelerator.

Meanwhile, in the United States, as the world’s largest producer of corn and soy, the value of food/agtech start-up investment is over US$2 billion since 2013.

There are over 300 deals in food/agtech start-up investments and more than 15 food/agtech accelerators.

Trairatkeyoon said that the government and organisations in Thailand should refocus themselves to see the potential of food-tech and agtech. There are only two industries in which Thailand has a clear advantage – tourism and food and agriculture.

“If Thailand wants to drive forward in the next few years, there is a lot more space in future food for Thai companies to grow,” said Trairatkeyoon.

Lai said that SproutX invests in many areas of agricultural technologies. In terms of competitive advantage for Thailand, obviously there are a lot of agriculture areas.

“Most of our portfolio is actually Internet of Things digitising the farms. But now we are open to anything, software and solution stuff and Internet of Things that help people organise what they are doing, or insect farming. Another one is robot,” said Lai.

Currently, he said, SproutX has invested in 19 agtech start-ups, mostly from Australia. But it is creating new fronts, specifically in Southeast Asia, where it is looking at hundreds of new high-tech start-ups in Southeast Asia and Asia in general.

“We are already the most active high-tech investor in the world and we think the future is full of opportunities. There are not many players here currently. So, it is a great opportunity for us,” said Lai.

He said SproutX positions itself as an ecosystem builder. Building top agri-food companies involves building an ecosystem, including agri-food community via event and hackathons; pre-accelerator and workshop; and accelerator.

“We are the most active agtech investor focusing on early stage. We are the only consistent agtech early-stage investor in the Asia Pacific, helping start-up teams from ideation through to international scaling,” said Lai.

SproutX’s model is to be the first investor and to continue investing in later stage rounds as a follow-on investor. The SproutX Venture Capital Fund has a 10-year term.

Meanwhile, Leon Ge, assistant vice president of ID Capital, a Singaporean venture capital, said the world faces the challenge of food shortage in the future and high technology is needed to produce food for every single person in the world.

“We look for disruptive technologies for agriculture and food industry,” said Ge.

Joseph Zhou, partner at BitsXBites, a food-tech accelerator venture capital in China, said that BitsXBites is China’s first food-tech accelerator and venture capital, established in 2016. It invests from the early stage – from seed all the way to series A.

The physical “Great and Good Friends” exhibition, celebrating 200 years of relations between Thailand and the United States ended on June 30 at Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles (QSMT) after being on display for over three months. But those who missed the show can now enjoy its digital version, thanks to a collaboration between Google, the US Embassy in Bangkok, the Thai government and the QSMT.

Without moving a toe, audiences can have a spectacular 360-degree view of the exhibition, including a glimpse of a historic letter from US president Abraham Lincoln to King Mongkut back in February 1862, the portrait of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in a silver niello frame presented as a gift to president John F Kennedy in 1963 and many other artefacts exchanged between the two countries over the past two centuries.

The exchange of letters between Lincoln and King Mongkut is where the phrase “Great and Good Friend” is used extensively used, which became the theme for the celebration of bicentennial relations.

Lincoln wrote to thank the King for sending “rich presents … as tokens of goodwill and friendship for the American people”.

The exhibition is not just about visual simulation of golden, dazzling artefacts. There also plenty of descriptive texts that narrate the stories from the time bilateral ties were born, stories behind each gift and artefact as well as the journey to the birth of the exhibition.

Curators Trevor Merrion and William Bradford shared their experiences in bringing to life the historic exhibition. For instance, there were challenges in “taking the artefacts on loan, their conservation, transport and production that required long hours of work by hundreds of Thais and Americans to feature over 79 artefacts from 15 institutions in the US and Thailand”, they said.

“I hope that telling stories of the last 10 generations [would help] some young Thai people understand better what is unique and valuable about the relationship about Thailand and the US,” said US Ambassador Glyn Davies, who pushed for the exhibition project more than three and half years ago.

“One of my jobs has been to help Thai people, especially young people, understand why it is important that Thailand and the US should work together,” Davies added, reiterating his intention behind putting the exhibition together on the digital platform.

For educational purposes, the exhibition is also planned to be featured in the Google Expeditions app to allow teachers across the world to take their classes on virtual field trips to QSMT

What is Google’s aim behind promoting this kind of soft power diplomacy? The tech giant’s country director for Thailand, Ben King, explains that the goal is to demonstrate how Google can be locally relevant and contribute efficiently to Thailand, and not be just another corporate based in Thailand.

And how exactly does one describe Google Art & Culture? As something that is completely free to use, democratic and accessible to any museum, says Suhair Khan, Program Manager of Google Arts & Culture who put it together.

While Google Arts & Culture may start becoming more visible in Thailand, the application itself has been active since 2011 with over 1,500 cultural institution partners in 70 countries, covering over 6 million photos, videos, manuscripts and other documents of art, culture and history.