Today, the daily lives of Thai people revolve around mobile phones serving as the hub for almost everything: transferring money, paying bills, shopping, investing, and accessing various services that once took an entire day, now completed within minutes. Everything flows smoothly, rapidly, and connects almost seamlessly. However, this picture immediately changes when the same tasks must be completed through “the government sector.”
Repeatedly entering the same information or submitting identical documents, navigating processes across disconnected agencies, and being forced to start over each time are common experiences familiar to Thai citizens. Despite the digital world advancing far beyond this, the issue is not simply whether “the digital government is adequate.” It is a deeper question about whether the real obstacle to government transformation lies in technology or in people’s mindset.
In the program Digital Frontier: Special Talk “Choose Again,” by Thairath Money, the discussion explores the true meaning of “digital government” through the perspective of Jack Chatrin Janhom, a party-list MP candidate from Pheu Thai. It helps understand current problems and how government reform can go beyond merely putting old systems online. The shift from fragmented agency operations to a “central platform” could be the key to unlocking issues of corruption, efficiency, and public trust in the long term.
“One problem reflecting the failure of Thailand’s digital government today is that each ministry and department develops its own apps. The result is one ministry having 100 apps and the entire country having 1,000 apps,”
said Chatrin Janhom, party-list MP candidate from Pheu Thai. He illustrated the problem from real experience participating in transforming the government’s old system into the new opportunities many expect.
Thailand’s push toward becoming a digital nation is not just due to a lack of technology, but rooted in “fragmented operations” and “a structure poorly designed from the start.”
When the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was established to drive digital government, operations proceeded independently. Various agencies and ministries, including central bodies, developed their own systems without linkage or coordination, resulting in siloed operations lacking a comprehensive overview and true interoperability.
This poorly designed structure grew chaotically, making it difficult to organize or upgrade later. Consequently, citizen and government data is scattered across multiple systems nationwide rather than being centralized for maximum efficiency.
Chatrin summarized the basic principles of digital transformation for the public sector across four key layers:
Chatrin highlighted an example showing that digital government is not distant but directly linked to the country’s structural problems: high investment yet low productivity. Thai workers work hard but generate less value than neighbors. Businesses waste enormous time on bureaucratic procedures. Opening a store, school, or business can take months or years. Sometimes, obtaining one license requires waiting in line for dozens of projects.
“Imagine if opening a restaurant, hotel, or new company didn’t require running between multiple ministries but could be done on a single platform. The system would instantly indicate which licenses are needed, which documents are missing, and whether applications meet criteria or not. If complete, approval would be immediate without waiting for any signature. Another example is healthcare: health data would be linked nationwide, so any doctor could instantly access treatment history via our Digital ID, reducing risks of incorrect medication and increasing survival chances in emergencies.”
Therefore, when discussing “digital government,” it must be understood as designing an entirely new system—from structure to work methods—especially shifting the government’s role from “control” to “support” and service provision, using technology as a tool to build new foundational infrastructure for every Thai to live conveniently, transparently, and efficiently as never before. Chatrin said.
When asked how much hope citizens have for “one app that does it all,” eliminating repeated registrations or downloading new apps for every new program or government, Chatrin responded that within one year, we will see a Super App consolidating the most essential basic services in one place. The latest progress includes budget approval and development principles already secured, supported importantly by the Digital Government Development Agency (DGA), which laid the groundwork for government apps previously.
Additionally, Chatrin proposed a key concept central to digital government: reducing human discretionary decision-making to create a “Trustless System,” where we need not trust individual politicians or officials but can rely on a transparent, verifiable system.“It’s not about distrusting people, but every point involving human decisions becomes a source of delay and an opportunity for corruption.”
Key mechanisms include online systems and technology. If all approvals occur online, the government can audit financial flows 100%, reducing leakage. AI can be used to approve licenses based on criteria, cutting bribery for speed. Crucially, Open Government involves disclosing procurement data so citizens can check what agencies buy, at what price, and who the contractors are.
“Thus, digital government is not just about speed but becomes a system structure that inherently limits and suppresses corruption. When data is open, citizens become co-auditors with the state, and AI can automatically detect abnormal behavior,” Chatrin stated confidently.
Ultimately, the key question about digital government to be answered collectively is whether the state’s structure is truly designed to serve citizens’ lives.
If digital government is built as “the life infrastructure,” covering birth, education, work, healthcare, and elderly welfare, policy must shift the government’s role from fragmented service provider to a “national central platform” that connects data once for lifetime use, reducing steps, discretion, and gray areas that long enabled corruption within bureaucracy.
True digital government is not a short-term project for any single administration but a continuous national agenda, measurable and citizen-centered. If the state dares to dismantle old structures and build new systems working for Thai lives from birth to death, digital government will move beyond a mere policy phrase to become infrastructure that raises quality of life, boosts productivity, and restores public trust in the long run.
The world changes faster every day, but are our systems keeping up? Education in the AI era New global workforce Digital government
Digital Frontiers: Special Talks #ChooseAgain invites tech-savvy politicians from three parties
Dr. Ork Kande Leo-Pairoj, Democrat Party
Mr. Pom Pawut Pongwitthayaphanuch, People's Party
Mr. Jack Chatrin Janhom, Pheu Thai Party
to understand the country’s shared challenges, identify problems, evaluate viable solutions, and explore how we all must adapt. Watch all three episodes on YouTube: Thairath Money
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