5G: The Foreign-Fund Magnet

Thailand is one of the top countries in SouthEast Asia that foreign investors are interested to invest in due to being a central point linking other economic countries in Asia from North to South, starting from China to Indonesia and West to East, starting from Vietnam to Myanmar. The country is also a strategic location of the  ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) community in terms of production, trade, exports, and transportation.

Aside from the geography factors mentioned above, the GDP growth is also the factor that draws foreign investors into investing in Thailand, especially when 5G will add tremendous value to the Thai economy.

 

The Office of The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) estimates that the time frame from today until 2035 will be enough for the country to efficiently adjust and apply the technology of 5G to the retail market, which will add value to the market around 2.3 trillion baht.

The manufacturing sector is estimated to create 634 billion baht in value from 5G technology, 124 billion baht for the transportation sector, 96 billion baht for the agricultural sector while the technology will reduce the medical cost at least 38 billion baht in utility sector per year.

To make the picture clearer, when the transportation sector uses a drone to deliver any products to its customers, sellers need to purchase or rent the communication network and purchase drones from the manufacturing sector.

Thus, 5G will be the new drive for the economy which will benefit various businesses, especially the equipment manufacturing industry and telecommunication to have outstanding growth.

 

The University of Surrey has published research, stating that between 2020-2030, the 5G technology will increase economic value at an average of 5.68% of GDP while 1.45% will be from the usage of high-speed internet and another 4.23% will be from auto-processing system.

 

Moreover, the cost of transportation, the cost of production and compatibility are also the factors that lead foreign investors to Thailand. 5G will increase performance while reducing the duration of transportation. The technology will auto-link the data between each vehicle while connecting the vehicle to the traffic system perfectly.

The manual work on the machine and sensor could also be done by 5G technology which will greatly reduce the cost of production for the producer and increase the compatibility for the company in the market. This is why 5G will play an important role when it comes to drawing foreign investors to the Thai market.

 

On the other hand, if the technology gets delayed, not only Thailand will lose the opportunity in drawing foreign investors, the foreign investors that invested in Thailand might move their production bases to other countries that have implemented 5G.

The example of this failure can be seen in India, who was once the star for foreign investors, but due to the slow approval process from the government, foreign investors decided to divest their business in India.

 

The tardiness of Thailand in applying 5G may cause the country to face the same circumstances as what India had faced in the past!