The government is revving up enforcement of the law governing the National Council on Research and Innovation Policy, a new national body tasked with upgrading the efficiency of state spending on research and development and unifying all state units handling R&D.
According to Prime Minister's Office Minister Kobsak Pootrakool, the government aims to complete a draft bill on the national council and enforce it some time this year.
A permanent physical office of the national council under the direct command of the prime minister will be set up to unify and centralise all existing agencies now handling R&D.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha invoked Section 44 last year to dissolve several R&D agencies and set up a single national body, saying the centralised council would help advance R&D in the country more effectively.
The council will act as a single command body for formulating policies to drive R&D, science, technology and innovation, which are seen as instrumental in driving future economic growth.
Under the order, more than 10 R&D bodies will be dissolved. They include the National Research Council of Thailand, the National Science Technology and Innovation Policy Office and the Thailand Research Fund.
Overlapping tasks were one of the reasons cited for the structural change.
"The newly established council will be a single command body for formulating policies to drive R&D, science, technology and innovation to support economic growth," Mr Kobsak said, adding that the new council will work to maximise R&D budgets, and their allocation will be restructured to ensure efficiency.
Kobsak: Forming single command body
"The government aims to bring about more unity of the country's R&D and innovation development to support economic development," he said, "ensuring that state spending on R&D can generate income and strengthen the country's overall competitiveness in the long run."
The draft bill is now in the process of public hearings.
"Previously, R&D was conducted with the purpose just to upgrade the academic performance of the researchers themselves, but from now on the state budget will be allocated only to research that can generate income or increase Thai competitiveness," Mr Kobsak said.
A separate committee handling the topics of R&D will also be established.
The country's national strategy plan for 2017-36 calls for R&D expenditure to amount to 2% of GDP in 2036, compared with 0.62% in 2015.
Private spending on R&D is expected to account for 80% of the total, with the government making up 20%.
Food, automotive and petroleum are among the top three investment sectors for R&D by manufacturers.
The government has budgeted 17 billion baht for R&D in fiscal 2018, up 15% from last year.
Kan Trakulhoon, director and chairman of the management advisory committee of Siam Cement Group, said Thailand is expected to take big strides in innovation development over the next several years, when expenditure on R&D reaches 1% of GDP in 2018 and 1.5% of GDP in 2021.
Mr Kan also urged small and medium-sized enterprises to spend more on R&D, as they can upgrade technology and generate more income.
He cited statistics by the National Research Council of Thailand that showed there were 15 companies spending more than 1 billion baht in R&D in 2016.
Sixty-five medium-sized companies had spent between 100 million and 1 billion baht on R&D in the same year, with 5,023 companies spending less than 100 million baht.
