On 19 September 2018, Dassault Systèmes’ Asia Pacific South team marked a milestone in our business in Thailand with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa), in the presence of the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak.
I was honoured to be a signatory for this MOU signing ceremony with Dr. Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin, the President/ CEO of depa, during the depa-led Digital Thailand Big Bang 2018, the largest digital technology exhibition in Southeast Asia, where we proudly showcased the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and stimulating innovation use cases which have pushed industries into new directions.
The MOU will cover projects focused on two important pillars of Thailand 4.0: cultivating Thailand’s workforce of the future and ‘smart city’ development. These are inseparable initiatives, because for a ‘smart city’ to be successful, it will need both a digitally capable workforce to govern it and digitally savvy citizens to engage with.
The team had the privilege of meeting DPM Somkid Jatusripitak in a closed door session where he shared with us the Thai government’s Thailand 4.0 vision, including developing 100 smart cities in Thailand within two decades and establishing a new economic model that will ultimately result in more value-added, higher quality products and services. But to achieve this, the biggest challenge – and also greatest opportunity – for Thailand 4.0 is developing a future-ready workforce.
Continual innovation is going to be the norm rather than the exception in the Industry Renaissance. No longer is theory-based curriculum and rote-learning enough for the future of work, where most routine work will be replaced by machine-learning algorithms, but an education and training system that hones those problem-solving skills needed for this new norm of continual innovation. Formal education will not stop at the university level, but continued throughout one’s lifetime in the workplace, in living spaces and in social interactions in the ‘smart city’ of the future.
Therefore, the projects to be defined by the MOU will be long-term and collaborative. It is often said that it takes a village to educate a child, but for the future of work, it will take the entire nation and its industries.
Amongst our inaugural initiatives to engage further with Thailand’s academia and industries, as part of the agreements set out by the MOU, will be our upcoming 3DEXPERIENCE Forum in Bangkok on March 21, 2019. The 3DEXPERIENCE Forum is an annual global event series driven by Dassault Systèmes which will bring to Thailand, world renowned industry thought leaders, famous technology experts and successful customers who are changing their own industries, to explore the latest trends, strategies, and best practices in preparing the Thai economy for its coming Industry Renaissance.
It is indeed an exciting time be part of Thailand’s rapidly transforming digital economy and we look forward to a long-standing partnership with depa.