As part of this strategy, the agency is preparing to provide grants worth Bt2.4 million to help producers of digital content expand into international markets. Chatchai Khunpitiluk, senior executive vice president of DEPA, said that the digital content industry in Thailand is continuing to grow both in the domestic and international markets. 

IDC conducted a survey that pointed to a valuation of Bt26.9 billion for the digital content industry in Thailand by the end of 2018.

Of the total, the games market would account for Bt20.5 billion, following by animation at Bt4.4 billion and characters at Bt2 billion.

The value of the total digital content industry was projected to grow around 12 per cent from last year, when it was worth Bt24.2 billion.

To drive growth in the digital content industry, DEPA is working with companies in the public and private sectors. These entities include: the Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP), the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) and five associations from Thai digital content industry, the e-Learning Association of Thailand (e-LAT), the Digital Content Association of Thailand (DCAT), the Thai Animation & Computer Graphics Association (TACGA), the Bangkok ACM SIGGRAPH (BASA) and the Thai Games Software Industry Association (TGA).

These entities are coming to conduct the Bangkok International Digital Content Festival 2018 on June 11-12 at the Intercontinental Hotel. The festival will help promote Thailand as a digital hub in the Asean region. 

Business matching 

The event will provide business matching between developers and investors and promote the work of digital content entrepreneurs and digital startups. 

Chatchai said that, regarding the planned grants, the agency would provide Bt120,000 in support to each digital content business. The funds would help them promote their offerings, including roads shows pitched at the international market. In all, about 20 such grants would be provided, for the total of Bt2.4 million.

 “I think that the digital content industry in Thailand will continue to grow since Thai digital content developers have imagination and are developing digital content with quality to support the demands of the market,” said Chatchai.

TCEB director Puripan Bunnag said that the agency expects that in the next three years the media and entertainment sectors will reach a value of Bt2 trillion and that Thailand will become regional leader in the fields.

It has the potential to host more than 300 studios and to become the No.1 location for exhibitions in the Asean region, backed by government policies that support the digital economy and the promotion of cultural industries.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Economy/30346202