Recently, many of us have heard the word ‘Thailand 4.0’ or ‘Industry 4.0’, which is new to Thailand. The Federation of Thai Industries is an important entity to drive Thai industrial sector and SMEs towards Industry 4.0, transforming mere survivability to sustainability.

From the current situation, Thailand is facing a slowdown in private investment due to several factors, especially a lack of connection between the private and public sector in implementing knowledge from research and development to further develop the business. If well connected, the R&D can be efficiently employed to help the business sector and SMEs. It is expected that by 2025 Thailand will achieve Industry 4.0. However, many of us may ask what actually Thailand 4.0 or Industry 4.0 is.

Thailand is an agricultural – based country, producing commodities and driven by industry. From historical development of Thailand, it is found that Thailand 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 focused on agriculture, light industry and heavy industry respectively. The question is how we are moving towards Thailand 4.0. It is a structural transition in which the use of technology and innovation is emphasized in order to enhance the value of goods and services - value based economy. Under Industry 4.0, not only industry but the economic structure, research & development and education are also reformed. In the context of economic structure, conventional production driven by labors, machines and resources becomes technology-based. Through educational reform, labor will be highly-skilled and knowledgeable about technology in line with future industrial development. Among examples of Industry 4.0 are agricultural technology (Agritech), food (Foodtech) Biotechnology (Biotech), health (Healthtech), robotic system (Robotech), Digital (Digital and IOT) and design and tourism (Designtech and Traveltech), etc.

Thailand 4.0 is one of the policies of long term national development foundation, aiming at generating higher incomes for people and making the country free from three traps: 1) Middle Income Trap 2) Inequality Trap and 3) Development Trap or Imbalance Trap. Government’s attempt to enhance both old and new Thai industry to become the world's leading industry under ‘Thailand 4.0’ has been made since 2015 and is expected to be completed by 2025. However, it is challenging to achieve the goal. Not only adopting the concept and having funds, there are many different factors that contribute to the development, viz. knowledgeable and skilled labor, innovation and advanced technology.  In this regard, there is a need to learn and understand technology and innovation prior to utilization.