Thailand has power its effort in becoming the leading economy in the South Eastern startup sector and Southeast Asia’s ‘Silicon Valley.’ Last year, Thailand hosted its first Startup Thailand Conference, deemed to be the most successful conference of its kind in Asia. This coming week, Thailand will host Startup Thailand 2018 under the theme, ‘Endless Opportunities’ to provide an international and Asia’s pioneering platform for startups worldwide and especially in Asia, in order to propel the sector’s economic growth.

Startup Thailand has established over 25 connections with startup communities worldwide to create an endless imagination of business and investment opportunities.  Startup Thailand 2018, will take place on May 17^th to 20^th at the Bangkok Queen Sirikit National Convention Center. It will be Asia’s largest startup conference with participation from established international startup companies and hottest new startups. The conference will include startups from 9 major technology movements including lifestyle and entertainment, property- tech and urban-tech, fin-tech, travel- tech, health-tech, ed-tech and gov- tech, industry-tech, agriculture- tech and food-tech, and business services. Guest speakers from renowned corporate, startup entrepreneurs and investors will share their past experiences and insights into the startup community. The conference will also host hackathons, pitching stages and venture trails for startups. The innovative conference wish to bring the Southeast Asian startup community closer together in addition to provide a networking experience for participating groups.

The Thai government has induced a strong development in its startup niche and its Thailand Startup conference last year had an estimate of over 50 thousand attendees. Nikkei Asian Review recently reported a number of mega corporations will increase their capital injection into the Eastern Corridor region of Thailand, including Alibaba already with plans to aid Thailand in establishing a Smart City; German car manufacturer BMW to build battery manufacturing units for electric cars and French Airbus to invest into Thailand’s upcoming airport redevelopment.

There are now over 1,500 startups in Thailand resulted from the fast economic growth of the country. Many startup enterprises have ventured into building capital funds to expand businesses, estimated to total over 1 billion USD.

The economic trajectory seems to be altering to a high-tech based strategy. In the past year, Thailand attracted a total of 9 billion USD of foreign direct investment (FDI), a 197% growth from the last year. Exports reached an alarming 23.67 billion USD, a 10.5% growth from the previous year and the highest in history. The GDP, moreover, increased by 3.7% from the previous 5 years. Many countries are forecasting a further growth in Thailand’s economy and expecting to expand their business market on this platform on the Southeast Asian market.

Source: Knowing News, Startup Thailand 2018