A profile of Phawut Pongvitayapanu, party-list MP and Shadow Minister of Digital Economy from the People's Party, who leads the investigation of the TH-AI Passport project.
On 18 Jun 2026 GMT+7, Phawut Pongvitayapanu, party-list MP number 7 from the People's Party, spearheaded the investigation of the TH-AI Passport project by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DES). This project allocates AI access free to 5 million citizens with a budget of 1.621 billion baht from the DES fund.
Previously, Phawut raised detailed concerns about the project's pricing structure, applying his technology expertise to analyze cost-effectiveness. This scrutiny turned the project into a political hotspot, questioned by the public. Comparisons were made to similar systems with lower budgets. He calculated token usage quotas and system fees, and found the Terms of Reference (TOR) suspicious, suggesting they favored certain business groups.
Regarding the background of "Pom" Phawut, He is a pioneer in Thailand’s e-commerce sector, founder of TARAD.com, CEO & Founder of Pay Solutions and Creden.co, as well as an investor and digital technology speaker. He previously ran for Senate with a platform emphasizing digital infrastructure development for Thai entrepreneurs.
Education
Master’s degree in Internet & E-Commerce from Assumption University.
MBA from Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration at Chulalongkorn University.
Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Rangsit University.
Work experience
2001–Present: CEO & Founder, Tarad.com Group Co., Ltd.
2013–Present: CEO & Founder of Pay Solutions Co., Ltd., CEO of E-frastructure Co., Ltd., Pay Solutions Co., Ltd., Creden.co, and Koolab.
Currently, besides serving as a party-list MP for the People's Party, he is appointed as the shadow Digital Economy Minister. He posted on Facebook before running for MP, explaining that after years of acting as a “warning voice” for Thailand’s online economy—as president of an association and representing the private sector—he had spoken until hoarse. The harsh truth is that "warnings alone cannot change laws." The distorted structure requires reform at the levels of “policy” and “legislation” only.