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True Corporation PCL is not only a communications and telecommunications technology service provider, but also an innovative organization that stands out for using technology and innovation to continually create changes in business and society. Today, we have the opportunity to talk to Dr. Pisan Chungchamroenkit, Head of the Innovation Center, True Corporation PCL, to hear good opinions as a member of the Innovation Thailand Alliance to revive Thailand. Let’s have a look…

Thailand’s innovation Situation

Government and private sector agencies are currently recognizing the importance of innovations in steering the economy and society as evident in funding support, development of researchers and developers, including cultivation and investments to promote core businesses of the future. Nevertheless, Thailand remains behind neighbors such as Malaysia or Singapore in many aspects such as the Global Innovation Index, VC attractiveness index or number of unicorns, etc.

True Innovation Strategy

True’s innovation promotion is in line with the strategic plans, both extension of the current business and stepping into the new business, for the organization to keep up with the changes and to transform into a Digital & Technology-Driven Organization. In the aspect of human resource capabilities, we support upskilling and reskilling our employees along with recruiting young talents, while in the aspect of business, we focus not only on the business value creation from synergy within the group and with other stakeholders, but also on the social value creation from the sustainable business. True Corporation encourages employees to present ideas and continually creates innovation. At present, True supports three levels of innovation developments: developing by employees, developing by collaboration with external research agencies in an open innovation approach via True Lab, and supporting local startups via True Incube and True Digital Park to develop technologies and build partnerships with business units in True Group. Furthermore, we also organize True Innovation Award forum every year to display the innovation achievements and let the innovators getting rewards and recognition.

Examples of True Corporation’s Innovations for Improving Quality of Life or the Environment

True Corporation has cooperated with the Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, to develop a hospital bed management system to prevent patients from falling out of the bed. The system can monitor the changes in patient's posture with Fusion Sensors linked to signals from the patient's bed simultaneously through 5G networks, which is fast, accurate and secure in data transmission. Another innovation is the wild elephant surveillance system in Kuiburi National Park, Prachuap Khiri Khan. This innovation was done by installing CCTV cameras along the wild elephant routes, using an AI system to detect images of the elephants, and sending notification messages to officials’ and villagers’ mobile applications to be aware of the elephant's travel path and to manage without causing harm the elephants. This innovation won a gold medal at the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival, USA and the Geneva's Exhibition and Congress Center (Palexpo), Switzerland.

Role of Innovation Thailand Platform

The Innovation Thailand platform is like a large database that collects innovation data at the national level, analyze, and display the results on the dashboard that will be beneficial to both the policy makers in the government sector and all the partners in the Innovation Thailand Alliance, who drive innovation together in the various fields. This platform will allow stakeholders to see the impact and the performance against the committed goals and to communicate in the same direction, which is important for determining directions and decision-making in driving innovation of the country.

True’s Participation in the Innovation Thailand Alliance

We have cooperated with both public and private agencies to create and support startups in Thailand by creating and incubating startups at the student level and young entrepreneurs through the Startup Sandbox project and other supports via True Lab, True Incube and True Digital Park such as One Stop Service consultation for startups and foreign startup facilitation through the Smart Visa program. In addition, we have collaborated with the National Institute of Innovation (NIA) to build the Bangkok Cybertech District at True Digital Park, which is Thailand’s first model of digital innovation district, which is the hub for innovators and startups with the most complete startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia.