The government has provided opportunities and paved way for startups to be on the business map and now the private sector must maintain this momentum by providing extra supports to ensure the survivability of this new eco-system.

“The government has already provided us with opportunities via incentives this have upgraded the startup status to be recognizable in Thailand’s business scene,” said Max Kortrakul, spokesman of the Thailand Tech Startup Association, an association which acts as a connector between players in and outside of the tech startup industry.

Examples of the opportunities that came with government supports include products and incentives such as Matching Fund that has gained a lot of attention from investors and tax cut for businesses which decided to use Thai seawares and applications.

“Incentives are being given and new funds are being set up which have attract both foreign and domestic investors while banks are also contently looking for innovation and these have provided more opportunities for startup in Thailand,” Max said.

However, what the association wanted to see in the second stage is the involvement of large corporate in the creation of human resource for the tech startup industry.

“What we wants to see are more developers and this can be done via the cooperation between the private sector and educational institutions,” Max said.

“The private sector can provide educational institutions with ideas of what kind of human resource that the industry currently need or which kind of technology is currently being use so that students can come out and find opportunities right away,” he added.

Max said that large corporate and educational institution can work together to create both on and offline courses to create more tech developers but these courses should not concentrate on creating entrepreneurs only.

“The courses can be about technologies in agriculture or modern trade or other industries which could involve the use of technology to improves it. We have to give value to all occupations since startup can be spread out to involve all industries,” he explained.

“Not everyone has to be an entrepreneur because they can also become designers or developers so what the educational institutions should do is to help them realized their full potential no matter what that is,” he added.

Max said the government has to continue with their efforts and the private sector, the educational institutions, old and new incubators and accelerators, along with various associations have to all work together to maintain this momentum and to make perfect this new startup eco-system.

“The government have already started the movement and now it is up to large corporates to help maintain the momentum since most startups are lack in experience, short in customer base and low on cash and these are things that could be provided to startups by large corporates,” he concluded.