Thailand – Strong consumer showing but business performance is the weak link

Thailand falls one place in its group of resource and efficiency-driven economies on the Connectivity Scorecard 2010. It is ranked second among Asian countries featured in the scorecard after Malaysia, which tops the group of 25 developing economies again this year.

Thailand has a respectable performance in consumer infrastructure, with mobile telephony penetration at about 100%. It gains its top score in consumer usage and skills, where it reports high literacy rates and strong voice usage. Its performance on government-related metrics is mixed; the provision of e-government services is modest but the usage and skills related to such services are rather low.

Thailand’s weak technology adoption and usage in the business category should be a cause for concern. Business infrastructure is marred by weaknesses such as poor broadband penetration and low availability of international bandwidth. The enterprise sector fares no better in business usage and skills either; its performance is weak on all metrics except secondary school enrolment rates.

Concerns over whether the government is paying enough attention to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) growth are likely to increase in the wake of the ongoing political uncertainty. However, the country’s telecom regulator is confident that the unrest will not derail the growth process.

Thailand Connectivity Performance by Scorecard Component