Thailand will get 10 million more engineers working on its own development network to boost the country’s growth, a government official said Wednesday.
The 10,500 people who will join the network will start to develop new software and other tools by 2020, said Noh Phangkakporn, chief technology officer at Thailand’s Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, or MTI.
Thailand is the world’s fourth-largest Internet market, with the country ranking fifth among countries for Internet users.
The number of Internet users in Thailand has surged from less than 10 million in 2014 to over 100 million in 2018, but the country has struggled to grow its online businesses, with its largest companies including Amazon and Expedia failing to make a profit.
Thai government officials have vowed to boost Internet access, and have announced plans to build a network of 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of fiber optic cables across the country, connecting to other countries in Southeast Asia and China.