
Launched in February 2024, the Big Data Institute's (BDI) core mission is to transform Thailand into a data-driven nation within four years.
The institute plans to roll out a national data intelligence platform next year, enabling state agencies to benefit from its data analytics process, covering around 30% of all major state agencies' datasets initially, before expanding to cover 90% by 2026.
BDI's goal is to create an economic impact of more than 3 billion baht and increase employment opportunities in value terms by more than 200 million baht this year, executive director Tiranee Achalakul told the Bangkok Post.
The precursor Government Big Data Institute (GBDi) under the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa) was established in 2019. The GBDi was later spun off from Depa and renamed BDI in February this year, with assets and staff transferred as it operates as a public organisation under the Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry.
INSTITUTE OVERVIEW
One of the institute's main roles is to coordinate with all parties to leverage big data for their operations, aiming to improve people's quality of life.
BDI collects critical information from various agencies, stores it and provides data analysis for systematic use. It is also responsible for data resource management and provides analytics for state agencies as well as cybersecurity for the economy.
The institute is also expected to promote the development of data personnel to expand the capabilities of key industries, she said.
BDI employs 120 young information professionals who are eager to learn, flexible, agile, and have clear goals, Ms Tiranee said.
Roughly 80% are data engineers, data scientists or data developers, and BDI expects to expand the team to 150 next year, 170 in 2026 and 200 in 2027, she said.
CHALLENGES
Ms Tiranee said the challenge for the institute is to gain trust from all agencies and improve the artificial intelligence (AI) literacy of Thais because the technology is increasingly affecting people on a daily basis through both innovative services and threats, regardless of whether people wish to interact with AI.
She said BDI's main task is not installing a fundamental cloud system or software for state agencies, but to act as a consultant on data applications and software installation. This includes helping state agencies review the terms of reference (TOR) for procurement and assisting them in conducting proof of concept in their decision-making process, said Ms Tiranee.
The government's data integration process is only starting, with certain agencies using data exchange with others, she said.
Some state organisations in the provinces do not have a relevant system available to facilitate their data export for data integration by others, said Ms Tiranee.
BDI and the DES Ministry addressed this issue through a TOR on state projects related to data or software development, requiring an application programming interface (API) system to facilitate data integration among state agencies.
"Not many agencies are well prepared. For example, the Comptroller-General's Department has a data exchange zone available for others to plug in and integrate data for analytics," she said.
"Most state units in the provinces do not have a relevant system installed. Roughly 5% of all state agencies nationwide have a data exchange system in place."
BDI has collected and developed data sets for more than 100 state agencies, out of around 300 total agencies under the central administration, said Ms Tiranee.
BUILDING TRUST
She said one of BDI's most important tasks is to gain the trust of all state agencies, making them understand the institute wants to bolster their operations with secure, data-driven tools.
The state agencies must acknowledge BDI will use their data resources for the sole purpose of data integration and analytics, using a secure process and practical access control, while complying with the Personal Data Protection Act.
"BDI will not utilise their datasets for other purposes," said Ms Tiranee. "State agencies that own data resources still hold the keys to gain access to their own data."
NATIONAL PLATFORM
Regarding the planned national data intelligence platform, it is meant to act like a central platform for data analytics, she said.
The platform will initially offer data catalogues produced from the existing datasets the BDI has been collecting from various sectors, said Ms Tiranee.
Thailand has sector-based data platforms contributed by BDI and other agencies such as the Travel Link platform, Health Link platform and Environment Link (Envi Link) platform, as well as datasets for state welfare, early childhood information, and even PM2.5.
BDI plans to integrate these sector-based data platforms into its national data intelligence platform by 2026, she said.
The platform will be used by data analytics experts to serve any requirements state agencies may have to solve problems or manage strategic policy, said Ms Tiranee.
THREE CORE PROJECTS
BDI established three core projects to serve its mission to push Thailand towards becoming a data-driven nation, she said.
The first, known as Project Big, is focused on big data integration. BDI will collect relevant information from various agencies, store it, and provide data analysis services according to the agencies' needs and suitability to achieve systematic use, said Ms Tiranee.
The project uses the Health Link platform to link health information between medical facilities across the country, while the Travel Link platform connects and develops travel information services to improve the competitiveness of Thailand's tourism industry.
The Envi Link platform in urban areas supports environmental policy planning, clean air, and reducing the carbon footprint, as well as data analytics services and data and information technology for engineering, she said.
Project Bridge helps develop entrepreneurs by creating both demand (data consumers) and supply (data providers) in the field of data science, consisting of big data business promotion that studies the market and analyses problems, as well as providing advice on making full use of the data.
Finally, Project Build aims to promote processing, analysis and AI to train data analysts and data engineers in the country.
The project educates on AI and big data through outcome-based learning that upskills and reskills workers via non-degree programmes.
BDI wants to conduct e-learning in the fields of AI and data science among both high school students and state officials in various sectors, covering 10,000 prospective learners total by next year.
For high school students, the institute plans to offer AI and data science e-learning classes to the Demonstration School of Kasetsart University as elective courses starting next semester.
"AI and data science are important forms of literacy that complement workers' knowledge in any data processing field such as human resources, law or accounting," Ms Tiranee said.
She said Thais have a low level of AI literacy compared with regional neighbours such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, although AI is increasingly affecting people's daily lives.
AI INFRASTRUCTURE
Ms Tiranee said BDI is cooperating with the Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Ministry to develop a Thai large language model (ThaiLLM) as a form of AI infrastructure that can generate meaningful and natural text similar to that produced by a human.
ThaiLLM could be used in a wide variety of applications in both the public and private sectors, she said.
"No matter the developments or the sector, the exchange of datasets between organisations can boost the competency of both organisations," said Ms Tiranee.
She said the competency of an LLM comes from complete datasets that come with a development cost.
As a result, BDI plans to establish a central ThaiLLM infrastructure in which every LLM developer can deposit their datasets.
The infrastructure would be operated via open licences and would be open source, allowing every stakeholder to develop their LLM models through this infrastructure, said Ms Tiranee.
DES Minister Prasert Jantararuangthong said earlier a main ministry policy is developing ThaiLLM as an AI infrastructure for the Thai language, with BDI driving the project.