Thailand Unveils Ambitious Strategy to Become an Innovation Nation

Berita Baru, Bangkok – The National Innovation Agency (Public Organization) or NIA has unveiled its strategy for driving Thailand towards being an innovation nation, “NIA Focal Conductor: Leading Thailand to be an Innovation Nation” under the concept of “Groom – Grant – Growth – Global”. The agency has also introduced its management team to drive and strengthen Thailand’s innovation ecosystem in all dimensions, including financial support, innovation entrepreneur development, access to innovation infrastructure, and for adaptation to full-scale digital transformation. This is to pave the way for strengthening and creating opportunities for Thai innovation entrepreneurs to grow and expand their investments in both domestic and international markets, leading to a positive and sustainable impact on the country’s economy and society.

Dr. Krithpaka Boonfueng, Executive Director of the National Innovation Agency, said that NIA is moving forward in its role as an “Innovation Focal Conductor” by working closely with partners both domestically and internationally to promote and support innovation-based entrepreneurs (IBEs) in all dimensions. The agency has five main goals: 1. Create and link IBE development platforms, 2. Create innovators and IBEs through the NIA Academy, 3. Strengthen the Thai innovation system and innovation ecosystem, 4. Raise the level of Thai innovation in the global innovation index, and 5. Adjust NIA’s role in driving the economy and society. The agency focuses on five key industries: agriculture, food, and high-value herbs; health and medicine; energy, electric vehicles and the environment; tourism; and soft power.

Over the past year, working under the concept of Groom – Grant – Growth, NIA has developed innovation capabilities and potential through the NIA Academy, which offers courses in collaboration with partners from both the public and private sectors, such as Siam Commercial Bank, Government Savings Bank, the Stock Exchange of Thailand, the Thai-Chinese Association, xLab Digital Co., Ltd., and the United Nations Organization for Women.

The agency has also created regional innovators and innovation city developers, promoted the business capabilities of entrepreneurs and has developed innovation business plans in the regions and online platforms such as InnoMall. NIA has also developed and promoted startups through startup league activities, a global startup center that facilitates startups by providing them with consulting, investor networks, and smart visas. Earlier this year, ‘UniFAHS’ Protein from natural phage for controlling pathogenic bacteria in animals, one of the agricultural startups that has been incubated and received seed funding from NIA, was able to expand and receive investments from ADB Ventures and InnoSpace (Thailand) of over 53 million baht.

NIA is also enhancing its financial support mechanisms to meet the needs of innovation entrepreneurs, such as mechanisms for expanding regional innovation to the market, mechanisms for supporting consultants to develop innovation, and corporate co-funding mechanisms. NIA has supported 319 regional innovation projects with a total of 566.88 million baht in funding and has co-invested with listed investors under the corporate co-funding mechanism for 141.43 million baht, expecting a business value of over 1,750 million baht.

The agency also promotes and disseminates successful innovation cases through Nilmangkorn (Black Dragon Horse) project, which this year has been expanded to Nilmungkorn 10X, which focuses on creating high-quality innovation entrepreneurs to enter the capital market with a sales target of no less than 100 million baht within 3 years. NIA has also developed a startup acceleration program in 4 areas: food technology, agricultural technology, health technology, and climate technology. The agency brings promising innovation entrepreneurs to participate in international exhibitions to create opportunities for global market expansion, such as in Germany, Japan, etc. In addition, NIA emphasizes the use of data to drive the innovation system through the “Thailand Innovation Portal” service platform, which has over 90,000 innovation data items and over 3,600 users.

“For the next step, in the role “Focal Conductor,” NIA will expand on the Groom – Grant – Growth concept by adding “Global” to focus on promoting innovation entrepreneurs to exponential growth both domestically and internationally. This will be done through projects and collaboration with network partners to expand the number of potential innovation entrepreneurs, to accelerate the Startup Act, promote various forms of co-investment from both public and private sources, develop a startup acceleration program in target industries such as medicine and climate change technology, to promote business expansion into international markets, and strengthen Thailand’s innovation network and readiness to work with the NIA to drive innovation. NIA aims to drive Thailand towards becoming an innovation nation recognized on the world stage.”

Dr Sura-at Supachatturat, Deputy Executive Director of Innovation Development, said that NIA has been accelerating the creation of more innovative companies and strengthening their business structures. “Access to funding” is a critical factor in facilitating the accessibility and equitable allocation of resources for SMEs, startups, social enterprises, and community enterprises. This year, NIA has developed new financial support mechanisms to better address the needs of innovative businesses for sustainable growth and market expansion through seven main mechanisms:

1. Regional Innovation Expansion to the Market for market testing and the improvement of innovative products or services to enable commercialization and reach new customer bases.
2. Targeted Innovation Project Funding for market feasibility testing of innovative products or services to improve products and services to target markets, and for evaluating economic and investment viability.
3. Innovation Development Consultant Support Mechanisms for hiring consultants to enhance internal organizational processes in business strategy, marketing, intellectual property, accounting, finance and investment, and international trade.
4. Product Testing for Compliance with Relevant Standards for hiring consultants, improving internal organizational processes, conducting testing and analysis, and for reviewing and evaluating to seek product registration or certification that is crucial for business growth.
5. Innovative Business Expansion for testing innovations in public and private sector entities to expand innovative businesses into target customer segments, along with economic and operational assessments.
6. Partial Interest Subsidies to enhance liquidity for the growth of innovative businesses.
7. Corporate Co-Funding Mechanism for Technology and Innovation Business Growth and Market Expansion through collaboration with public and private sources of funds or Corporate Co-Funding to support activities related to business growth development, such as product development, marketing, capacity expansion, team growth, and intellectual property management and there is a repayment requirement when the project is commercially successful.

Mr Pariwat Wongsamran, Deputy Executive Director of Innovation Systems, said that, apart from financial support, NIA also focuses on the development capabilities of innovation entrepreneurs and innovation infrastructure to elevate Thai innovation entrepreneurs to the global market under the “Local to Global” concept. This has three main goals:

1. To strengthen regional innovation systems by promoting access to innovation infrastructure in business knowledge, technology, intellectual property, prototyping facilities, finance, investment, and domestic and international marketing through collaboration with regional science parks and universities, the creation of innovation districts and innovation cities.
2. To develop Thailand’s target industries by providing resources and market linkages to targeted industries that are prominent and have growth potential, including agriculture, food and herbs, health and medicine, energy, environment, electric vehicles, tourism, and soft power. It also involves developing human resources to support these industries, such as artificial intelligence (AI), electric vehicles (EVs), and semiconductors.
3. To promote Thai innovation entrepreneurs to the global market by creating opportunities for business expansion and fundraising to enhance the country’s innovation capabilities and competitiveness through international market linkages, partnership building, and business matching activities in foreign countries such as the United States, Finland, China, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong.

Ms Supichaya Limtrakul, Deputy Executive Director of Organizational Strategy, said that in today’s world, digital transformation is about increasing opportunities and the potential to serve innovation entrepreneurs through digital means in a comprehensive way. NIA is focused on creating service and work experiences for personnel that meet the needs of the modern economy and the lifestyles of the new generation. It is prioritizing digital transformation in five areas:

1. Digital Service: focusing on creating a Digital Service Journey alongside the Innovation Journey through the Groom-Grant-Growth program, which will be divided into both internal and external service recipients.
2. Digital People: this involves developing staff to keep up with the changes in Digital Literacy to become Digital Competency, especially towards AI Competency.
3. Digital Connectivity: connecting work and with access to services anytime and anywhere to meet the needs of society and the lifestyles of the new generation.
4. Digital Compliance: This involves raising the standard of data management and cybersecurity to international standards.
5. Digital Data: A Central Innovation Data Platform to enhance the use of data for innovative businesses.