The National Innovation Agency (NIA) is gearing up to support foreign investments in Thailand through joint ventures and partnerships with local entities in technology, targeting US$1 billion worth of deals over five years.
The move is part of efforts to build Thailand's brand as an "innovation nation".
"The NIA is changing our role from a system integrator to a focal facilitator in order to build comparative advantage, increase local strengths, and develop the capability and growth of startups and entrepreneurs on the global stage sustainably," said NIA executive director Pun-Arj Chairatana.
The NIA will promote innovation with a five-year strategic plan, which starts next year, said Mr Pun-Arj.
The first strategy is to develop an open system for innovation development, he said.
According to Mr Pun-Arj, innovation cooperation will take place with France, mainly in the food, space and defence industries, while investment in the aviation field is likely in the Eastern Economic Corridor.
The NIA is also looking to work with Japan for innovation development.
"Our goal for international collaborations is to create deal-making for innovation projects and businesses in large corporations and startups, with the value reaching $1 billion in five years," he said.
Other strategies include the development of an innovative financial system, the creation of an innovative database for policymakers and entrepreneurs, and upgrading the NIA to deal with changes.
The NIA also revealed seven innovation trends for next year that could drive the nation's competitive advantage.
The first trend is in energy tech. According to the NIA, there will be a transition from petroleum-based power to renewable energy, such as solar panels, geothermal energy, bio-energy, and green hydrogen energy.
A vital technology for the circular economy in the future is a "high-efficiency back-up power supply", such as grid energy storage systems, advanced lithium-ion batteries for battery energy storage systems, and alternative battery technologies, said Mr Pun-Arj.
The second trend involves the travel and aviation industries. Entrepreneurs need to apply innovation to create sustainable tourism, said the NIA.
Aviation firms require innovation to deal with the shortage of manpower and resources, as well as to mitigate environmental impacts.
"Thailand has the potential to provide clean biofuel for aircraft," he said.
The third trend concerns deep-tech startups. The development of deep tech would create better competitive advantages in terms of property rights and support international market expansion, said the agency.
Global fundraising for deep-tech startups surged from $15 billion in 2018 to $60 billion in 2022.
For Thailand, medical, food and agricultural deep tech should be underscored, Mr Pun-Arj said.
The NIA also highlighted soft power as the fourth trend, giving as an example Japan's comics, animation and games.
Thailand is pursuing soft power through five "F" perspectives, comprising food, film, fashion, festivals and fighting (Muay Thai), he said.
The NIA indicated that non-fungible tokens could serve as another potential soft power segment.
The fifth trend concerns sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) for data-driven content creation. People can use AI to create more effective content through data.
"This can be applied for advertising and marketing communications," said Mr Pun-Arj said.
The sixth trend is the next generation of food tech.
"Thailand has high potential in plant-based meat products and insect protein. However, we need to increase food-tech startups that have the capability for advanced food processing engineering," he said.
The last trend involves higher spending on defence tech.
According to Mr Pun-Arj, many countries attach a high level of importance to defence technology development because of what it means for their security and economy.
"Defence innovation development is quite a challenge for Thailand, but we can reduce imported items and purchase locally made products, such as armoured vehicles and bullets," he said.
