Prayut urges quick digital transition
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered all state agencies to apply big data and speed up transforming their operations to become fully digitalised over the next three years.
In his keynote speech at a seminar titled “Digital Government: Significant mechanism to drive the country’s development” yesterday at the Digital Government Development Agency (DGA), Gen Prayut said state agencies need to accelerate the digitalisation of their working processes according to the digital government development roadmap (2020-2022) that calls for all government agencies to become fully digitalised by 2022.
The goal is to provide better services to the public and private sectors.
The DGA was founded in 2018 under the Office of the Prime Minister to provide services and support to all government agencies with regard to digital government transformation.
The agency introduced the e-government portal www.egov.go.th a few years ago to serve as a central information hub, helping people to access public services provided by different agencies.
It also developed the CITIZENinfo application earlier this year, offering services for those searching for 8,000 locations of state agencies nationwide as well as the required documents needed before citizens contact these state agencies.
“In the digital economy, Thailand must have valid and on-time data for policymakers to determine implementation of appropriate, efficient, on-time policies,” he said.
Gen Prayut said the previous government implemented a spate of digital transformation efforts and the requirement for a copy of an identification card was scrapped for 60 categories of state services.
“Thailand moved up four places to rank 73rd among 193 countries in the UN E-Government Survey 2018, and advanced six notches to 21st out of 190 countries in the World Bank’s 2020 Ease of Doing Business rankings,” he said.
“This reflects the government’s efforts to develop digital government.”
Gen Prayut said all state agencies need to apply big data for the fiscal 2021 budget so that budget allocation conforms with real public demand, urgent projects and more efficient government spending.
State agencies are also required to develop a strategic plan that aligns with Thailand’s digital government vision in 2021, five-year national and social development plan, and 20-year national strategy plan.
He also ordered the Office of the Civil Service Commission to recruit human resources in compliance with the digital government plan.
New state officials replacing retirees must have digital skills because they will play a greater role in contributing to each agency’s rapid digital transformation, said Gen Prayut.