Thailand is planning to open and begin operating three R&D centres in June (Photo: Bloomberg)Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA) plans to open and beginoperating three research and development (R&D) centres in June, comprisedof an artificial intelligence (AI) lab, an augmented reality/virtual reality(AR/VR) lab, and Maker Space – an innovative device design centre.
The three units are expected to help spurprojects at the digital park in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).
DEPA PresidentNuttapon Nimmanphatcharin said the three units will be located at the firm’snew office in the Ladprao Hills building that opened in March.
The Thai agencysigned memoranda of understanding (MoU) with various partners for eachdevelopment unit.
The development of the AI centre will be done viaa partnership with the Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology(Vistec) which is sponsored by PTT Group and located in Rayong’s WangchanValley.
The area aims to support education and humanresources in science and technology.
DEPA plans tospend 20 million THB (625,000 USD) on the centre, while Vistec will spend 30million THB (nearly 940,000 USD) on the initial development budget.
The AI centre is expected to help developbusinesses and a workforce related to AI ecosystems, as well as innovativeproducts driven by AI tech, Nuttapon said.
For the AR/VRdevelopment centre, he said DEPA signed a 13 million THB (400,000 USD) MoU witha leading 3D and AR/VR development company, Unity Technologies, in April.
DEPA also signeda MoU with a local company, Anitec, for the joint development of innovativeproduct designs. It plans to spend 10 million THB, while Anitec will spend30 million THB on initial development.
With these moves,DEPA aims to promote and build scalable startups and serve the government’sgoal to push Thailand towards becoming a startup hub in ASEAN. –VNA
VNA
