NIA to strengthen innovation in Thailand with new financial mechanisms, promoting the export of Thai innovative products to international markets and leverage digital technologies in five dimensions to enhance organizational operations

BANGKOK, THAILAND - Media OutReach Newswire - 23 July 2024 - The National Innovation Agency (Public Organization) or NIA has unveiled its strategy for driving Thailand towards being an innovation nation, "NIA Focal Conductor: Leading Thailand to be an Innovation Nation" under the concept of "Groom - Grant - Growth – Global". The agency has also introduced its management team to drive and strengthen Thailand's innovation ecosystem in all dimensions, including financial support, innovation entrepreneur development, access to innovation infrastructure, and for adaptation to full-scale digital transformation. This is to pave the way for strengthening and creating opportunities for Thai innovation entrepreneurs to grow and expand their investments in both domestic and international markets, leading to a positive and sustainable impact on the country's economy and society. Dr. Krithpaka Boonfueng, Executive Director of the National Innovation Agency, said that NIA is moving forward in its role as an "Innovation Focal Conductor" by working closely with partners both domestically and internationally to promote and support innovation-based entrepreneurs (IBEs) in all dimensions. The agency has five main goals: 1. Create and link IBE development platforms, 2. Create innovators and IBEs through the NIA Academy, 3. Strengthen the Thai innovation system and innovation ecosystem, 4. Raise the level of Thai innovation in the global innovation index, and 5. Adjust NIA's role in driving the economy and society. The agency focuses on five key industries: agriculture, food, and high-value herbs; health and medicine; energy, electric vehicles and the environment; tourism; and soft power. Over the past year, working under the concept of Groom - Grant - Growth, NIA has developed innovation capabilities and potential through the NIA Academy, which offers courses in collaboration with partners from both the public and private sectors, such as Siam Commercial Bank, Government Savings Bank, the Stock Exchange of Thailand, the Thai-Chinese Association, xLab Digital Co., Ltd., and the United Nations Organization for Women. The agency has also created regional innovators and innovation city developers, promoted the business capabilities of entrepreneurs and has developed innovation business plans in the regions and online platforms such as InnoMall. NIA has also developed and promoted startups through startup league activities, a global startup center that facilitates startups by providing them with consulting, investor networks, and smart visas. Earlier this year, 'UniFAHS' Protein from natural phage for controlling pathogenic bacteria in animals, one of the agricultural startups that has been incubated and received seed funding from NIA, was able to expand and receive investments from ADB Ventures and InnoSpace (Thailand) of over 53 million baht. NIA is also enhancing its financial support mechanisms to meet the needs of innovation entrepreneurs, such as mechanisms for expanding regional innovation to the market, mechanisms for supporting consultants to develop innovation, and corporate co-funding mechanisms. NIA has supported 319 regional innovation projects with a total of 566.88 million baht in funding and has co-invested with listed investors under the corporate co-funding mechanism for 141.43 million baht, expecting a business value of over 1,750 million baht. The agency also promotes and disseminates successful innovation cases through Nilmangkorn (Black Dragon Horse) project, which this year has been expanded to Nilmungkorn 10X, which focuses on creating high-quality innovation entrepreneurs to enter the capital market with a sales target of no less than 100 million baht within 3 years. NIA has also developed a startup acceleration program in 4 areas: food technology, agricultural technology, health technology, and climate technology. The agency brings promising innovation entrepreneurs to participate in international exhibitions to create opportunities for global market expansion, such as in Germany, Japan, etc. In addition, NIA emphasizes the use of data to drive the innovation system through the "Thailand Innovation Portal" service platform, which has over 90,000 innovation data items and over 3,600 users. "For the next step, in the role "Focal Conductor," NIA will expand on the Groom - Grant - Growth concept by adding "Global" to focus on promoting innovation entrepreneurs to exponential growth both domestically and internationally. This will be done through projects and collaboration with network partners to expand the number of potential innovation entrepreneurs, to accelerate the Startup Act, promote various forms of...