During March this year, the parliament announced the budget allocation of USD 15.3 Billion for fiscal year, 2017-2018. Ministry of Planning and Finance received the largest amount at 22%, Ministry of Electricity and Energy was allocated 20%, and Ministry of Defence has the third highest at 13%.

For the past months, the issue of cyberattack has been a hotly discussed topic due to the global “ransomware” attack that disrupted factories, hospitals and even schools. Purchase of cybersecurity products increased significantly which then resulted in the rise of shares of some cybersecurity firms.

The Saensuk municipality has joined hands with Dell Corporation and Intel Microelectronic (Thailand) to kick off Thailand's first smart city for elderly people in Chon Buri. 

In an annual survey conducted by Computer Weekly/Techtarget among CIOs in ASEAN, it was found that IT decision-makers across the region are expecting another positive year for their IT budgets. 25% of CIOs in the region are expecting an increase of more than 10%, compared to 2016. A further 26% of CIOs predict a small increase, but a rise nevertheless.

It's halfway through 2017 and IoT remains a buzzword in the tech industry. Almost every day we'd come across a new article on latest technology trends, disruptive models, new partnership announcements...but may I repeat - when was the last time you spoke to a user?

When Myanmar opened up to the world after 49 years of military rule, many corporations turned their eye to glance at the local market. As time goes by, it has been realized that the country poses enough challenges to profit corporations in a few years’ time, and not for the present.

Earlier this week, we took a first look into our ongoing annual enterprise survey and found that while more than 70% of enterprises in Southeast Asia have implemented IoT or are exploring IoT projects currently, only 7% have reported successes.

It was a hectic past week for us at Asia IoT Business Platform as we hosted press briefing sessions in both Bangkok and Jakarta. At the same time, we also concluded our annual IoT survey which looks at the perspectives of local enterprises and organizations in Southeast Asia pertaining to IoT deployment and implementation.

Smart mobility might have been a concept lost in Myanmar previously, but starting from this year, the country has been making massive changes to its public transport system. Yangon is the commercial and probably the most developed city in the country.

I don’t even know where to start when it comes to Jakarta’s roads. Is it bad? Horrible? A nightmare? They are probably the kind of roads that you can find in the deepest bowels of hell.

A Forbes article last week asserts that partnerships are key to IoT success. In the article, the author highlighted a study from Cisco that showed an alarmingly high rate of failure for IoT projects -75%. Even the remainder of the projects that were delivered were also seldom regarded as success.

The numbers weave together a tapestry of opportunities for solution providers, and we cannot deny that. In a world of economic uncertainty, countries in ASEAN somehow manage to rise above the sluggishness to project expected growth averaging 5 - 6 per cent over the next couple of years.

WHO recommends a minimum threshold of 2.3 health workers (doctors, nurses, midwives) for 1,000 people to achieve health-related Millennium Development Goals: reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. 

The next time you chug down the ever-popular Chang beer in Thailand, you will be consuming the fruit of robots’ labour. Thai Beverage Group (ThaiBev) and Charoen Pokphand (C.P.), two of Thailand’s—and Southeast Asia’s—biggest F&B conglomerates, are planning to develop robots to respond to the Thailand 4.0 scheme.

A study by Gartner predicted 25 billion interconnected devices will exist by 2020 - it is no surprise that IoT (Internet of Things) is no longer a mere buzzword but our future. IoT enable devices to collect data to derive useful information for better decision making.

Thailand’s move to become the region’s digital infrastructure hub has been strengthened by several Internet of Things (IoT) projects and initiatives. From the deployment of long-range IoT network...

In the survey carried out by the Yangon City Development Committee’s Pollution Control and Cleansing Department (YCDC), it was found that by 2015 each person disposed 0.41 kg of garbage on average daily, and the garbage production had been rising continually, from 0.34 kg in 2012. More than 70% of the rubbish was classified as kitchen waste, and the rest as plastic, glass, tin and other materials.

I was in Phuket for the past few days. Being a complete stranger to the island with a language barrier, what helped me get around Phuket was this application called Grab. Grab uses an IoT revolutionised fleet to operate their on-demand services. This has made it possible for people to simply tap their smart phone and have a cab arrive at their location in the minimum possible time.

Uber, a smartphone-app based ride sharing service, which connects users who need to get somewhere with drivers willing to give them a ride.

From 2015 onwards, we saw heartening digital initiatives being pushed out (and we have written extensively on these). One of the most significant of these initiatives is, clearly, the implementation of the National IoT Strategic Roadmap, in which interoperability has been identified to drive IoT growth in Malaysia.

Smart cities continue to be a hot topic at this year’s Asia IoT Business Platform 2016 Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. Graced by the presence of Ministry officials and city mayors, presentations and discussions on IoT technologies related to smart cities raise much interest in the conference participants. Interestingly, while technologies were extensively discussed, so was another aspect sometimes overlooked - engaging and educating smart citizens.

A recent study by analyst firm IDC showed that Malaysian organisations are lagging behind their ASEAN counterparts in the digital transformation stakes. 

August had been a very busy month for us, but we're happy to witness the growth of Indonesian and Malaysian enterprise IoT markets since we launched Asia IoT Business Platform 3 years back.

Earth Day will be commemorated this Saturday, 22 April. It marks the anniversary of the contemporary environmental movement that started in the 1970s. On this day, environmental issues are thrown into the spotlight, to be pondered and reflected upon, and hopefully be solved. On this day, we celebrate the planet’s environment and raise public awareness about the many woes that our planet is facing, largely due to our own actions – and inactions.

As forecasted by Myanmar Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, Cyclone Maarutha swept the coast of West Myanmar, Thandwe township at 8.30 pm on 16th April. Maarutha, however, was short-lived and weakened steadily because of the rugged terrain of the region according to NASA. A few houses would need to redo their roofs and one lamp post has to be replaced, but there has been no report of a large-scale destruction in the area where the cyclone made the entry.

In the face of growing vehicle population and limited land for road expansion, Singapore is taking a multi prong approach to Urban Mobility with the launch of Smart Mobility Plan 2030, where Intelligent Transport Systems would play an important role in enhancing transportation services to maintain delightful travel experiences. The Internet of Things (IoT) will feature heavily with the implementation of Smart sensors & Devices in Land Transport allowing real time insights to be gleaned through big data.

What good is a market if there is no prospect? Lucky for Industrial IoT solution providers that are looking to access the Thai enterprise IoT market, the manufacturing and industrial sector in Thailand appears to be in a pretty good shape. It is no surprise that Thailand has always been a manufacturing giant, not only in Southeast Asia, but in the world. The Thai economy, which has traditionally been based on agricultural exports, has transformed within the past few decades. Presently, the industrial sector constitutes a substantial share of Thailand’s economy.

Tax revenues are vital to support infrastructure that citizens rely on. These revenues help fund nation building and is used to support projects including ICT, improving education, food security and housing services. Without the support of tax payers, many of these programs cannot exist. Tax agencies around the world are increasingly leveraging technology to increase productivity and plugging the leakages of tax collection. Countries in South East Asia are no different

The growth in industrialization as well as economic development as a whole has led to an increasing need for more electricity. Although Myanmar is rich with natural resources such as hydropower, gas and coal that can be used to generate electricity, it has the lowest electrification rate in Southeast Asia. The country also foresees a 15% increase in electricity demand every year.

Cities around the world are beginning to understand the huge potential of the Internet of Things (IoT). Thailand is no different, with the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society looking to leverage on the Internet of Things to turn Phuket into a smart city by 2020.

We were honoured to witness the efforts of the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA)’s efforts in promoting several IoT related industry and talent development programs in Taiwan, including the official launch of Microsoft IoT Innovation Center in October last year.