depa Teams Up with BAAC to Improve Quality of Life of
People nearly 100 Communities in 4 Regions Digital Technologies Used to
Level Up to Promote Tourism, Distribute Income to Communities for
Thailand’s Sustainable Development 
August 18, 2020, Asia Hotel Bangkok – The Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa) and the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) held a press conference to announce a collaboration on promotion and adoption of digital technologies and innovation in the community tourism sector under the depa mini Transformation Voucher for 2020.
Dr. Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin, President/CEO of depa, said the depa is a key state agency with commitment to steering the economy in line with the government policy. The depa has continuously provided support of digital technologies and innovation under the depa mini Transformation Voucher scheme. It aims to enhance the adoption of digital technologies and accelerate a broad-based digital transformation across segments in society in collaboration with the depa’s alliances. With the support from the depa mini Transformation Voucher, it has helped revitalize the Thai economy and encouraged the Thai industrial sector and businesses to adopt digital technologies and innovation to help reduce operating costs, production costs and other expenses related to providing services and marketing activities. The digital technologies also helped maximize the efficiency of business operations as well as enhancing business competitiveness in the modern trade landscape in the long run.
“The tourism sector is the key factor helping to shore up the Thai economy as the sector can generate revenue from both foreign and local travelers. Related businesses in the tourism sector also enjoyed the benefits such as restaurants, mega stores, retailers, farmers, communities and the logistics sector. The community-based tourism is a core concept of the tourism industry to support the distribution of income to local communities, helping to drive growth of grassroots economy, which is the backbone of the country’s economic structure. It is in line with the government policy to drive grassroots economic development for sustainable economic growth of the nation” said the President/CEO of depa.
Somkiat Kimawaha, Senior Executive Vice President of the BAAC, said the bank has the policy to drive community economic development to build strong communities in terms of economy, society and the environment. The BAAC has publicized the collaboration with the depa and communicated with the target communities about the initiative to promote community economy. The bank also considered and selected the qualified projects proposed by communities, rural organizations, and entrepreneurs from more than 50 tourism communities across the country. The selected projects will receive promotion and support from the depa and they will be further developed using digital technologies and innovation to strengthen the communities in preparation for the community-based tourism operations at each target community. All projects will be closely monitored, regulated, and followed up on the progress of the development.
The collaboration between the BAAC and the depa has helped with strengthening communities, allowing them to receive a lot of prestigious awards such as the Prime Minister’s Digital Award 2019 in the Digital Community of the Year category won by Baan Tham Sua Community in Phetchaburi. The community adopted the digital-driven agricultural practice by utilizing an application to track the progress of the plantation for calculating carbon credit. Baan Nong Sarai Community in Kanchanaburi also adopted a smart farming approach by using weather monitoring technology to obtain accurate weather forecasts by 24 hours in advance. The Agtech made them earn economic value and the Prime Minister’s Digital Award 2019 in the category of Digital Talent Award of the Year. The two organizations also collaborated to hold a training program focusing on the application of digital technology and innovation in communities to promote sustainable community tourism development in four regions across the country.
The depa’s community development and promotion held an activity aimed at elevating the potential of tourism communities in order to achieve sustainable community tourism in four regions of Thailand. The depa has communicated with local communities across the country about the criteria to receive promotion and support from the depa since July. The depa’s support and promotion have been able to encourage no less than 77 communities to adopt digital technologies as well as helping over 236 people and businesses accomplish their business matching between communities and digital service providers, generating more than 770,000 baht per a community in economic value. The community development and promotion from the depa also helped increase competitiveness of each community, cut operating costs, raise income by no less than 20% per a community. It has helped to create an integrated network of digital-driven communities nationwide, leading to an accelerated pace of broad-based digital transformation and adoption of digital technologies and innovation to improve the quality of life in a sustainable manner.
