The DE Ministry's FY 70 budget saw a 33% increase but was cut by nearly half from the requested 24 billion baht to 13.683 billion baht. The Digital Economy Agency led with a 92% budget increase, mostly for investment in the Government Data Center and Cloud Service (GDCC) over 4.98 billion baht. NT was contracted to operate centralized cloud investment. The TH AI Passport Phase 2 budget of 900 million baht was fully cut during the budget office committee review stage.
Mr. Wetawong Puangsap, Secretary-General of the National Digital Economy and Society Committee (DEA). He revealed that the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DE)'s budget under the draft Appropriation Act for fiscal year 2570 is 13.683 billion baht, an increase from 10.274 billion baht in fiscal year 2569, up by 3.409 billion baht or 33%. The agency with the largest budget increase is the DEA, which received 5.5114 billion baht in FY 2570, up from 2.8571 billion baht in FY 2569, an increase of 2.654 billion baht or 92%.
The main factor driving the DEA's significant budget increase is the Government Data Center and Cloud Service (GDCC) project, which received 4.98 billion baht in FY 2570, up from 2.264 billion baht in FY 2569. This is the highest budget for the central government cloud project in its 7-8 years of operation, as FY 2570 will be the year GDCC expands from serving individual government agencies to becoming the national central cloud infrastructure. All cloud systems not under GDCC must connect data with GDCC to provide a comprehensive view of government cloud usage and comply with standards set by the DEA.
The GDCC budget for FY 2570 is divided into two parts: 4.204 billion baht for ongoing projects supporting existing agency services, and 776 million baht as new integrative funding allocated by the budget office to have the DEA provide services centrally instead of individual agencies purchasing separate cloud services..This budget is not for DEA's direct expenditure but for contracting National Telecom Public Company Limited (NT) to operate centralized procurement and management of government cloud via GDCC, helping reduce costs by at least 30%.
Besides the increased GDCC budget, other budgets were entirely cut, including the TH AI Passport Phase 2 project valued at 900 million baht, which was cut at the budget office committee stage.
Regarding the Digital Economy and Society Development Fund, for which he serves as board secretary, Mr. Wetawong said that the call for project proposals for 2569 is now open, with about 1 billion baht remaining.
The reporter added that the total approved budget for FY 2570 is 13.683 billion baht, an increase of 3.409 billion baht or 33% from FY 2569. However, compared to the total requested 24 billion baht, almost half was cut.
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