AIS, the leading 5G network provider in ASEAN and the number one network in Thailand, has joined Amata Corporation Public Company Limited, a leading industrial estate developer in ASEAN, to build on their strategic partnership and expand their cooperation in developing a Smart City. They are introducing AIS 5G digital infrastructure and a fiber optic network to support more high-tech solutions for the Smart City project and creating digital innovations to offer more advanced management and manufacturing systems at Amata City Chonburi. Amata City will be transformed into a full-scale Smart City that can support greater economic growth, more manufacturing and more investment to realize the intentions of the Easter Economic Corridor (EEC) project and the Thailand 4.0 policy. AIS and AMATA signed an MOU on the establishment of a new joint venture company called Amata Network Company Limited that will install a crucial digital infrastructure to raise the capacity of Amata City Chonburi since December 2016.

Somchai Lertsutiwong, Chief Executive Officer of Advance Info Service Pcl. (AIS) said, “Since 2016, AIS and Amata have been working closely together to bring essential digital infrastructure and IoT innovations in to strengthen management, manufacturing, and utilities in Amata City Chonburi. Now 5G technology is here, and it will soon become the very powerful Real New Normal of technology. 5G is super-efficient because it is so fast, so stable and can support so many devices. AIS is a 5G leader in the region and the first and only 5G provider in ASEAN to fully cover 100% of the industrial estates in the EEC. We have thus taken our partnership with Amata Corporation to the next level to create a real Smart City incorporating 5G technology, with both 5G Stand Alone and 5G Network Slicing, combined with a fiber optic network and ICT infrastructure to offer superior service to the over 750 factories located at Amata City Chonburi. This development helps boost manufacturing capacity and the competitiveness of Thailand’s industrial sector to equal anywhere else in the world. We are also helping develop solutions that will facilitate the creation of a very modern Smart City with advanced management, resource use, transportation, and security for the good of the people in the area. I am confident that our combined strengths and our shared vision to develop the Smart City with 5G digital infrastructure will help the Thai economy recover and will give our industrial sector a competitive advantage for manufacturing and other industries. More investors from all over the world will certainly be attracted to invest in the EEC and it will be propelled forward as the main 4.0 industrial hub in the region.”

Vikrom Kromadit, President and acting CEO of Amata Corporation Public Company Limited, said, “In the past, Amata joined AIS to set up Amata Network Company to lay an optic fiber network at Amata City Chonburi. This important digital infrastructure upgrades the standard of our industrial estate to transform it into AMATA Smart City. This MOU to expand our cooperation is a great opportunity to bring in 5G technology, to raise standards in the whole industrial sector and expand advanced digital infrastructure to other industrial estates in the EEC. The EEC is an important strategic asset for the Thai economy because it links trade routes and investment in ASEAN with the rest of the world. We are dedicated to developing Amata City Chonburi up to international standards and to being a full-fledged Smart City. It can serve as a model for other industrial estates, and more investors around the world will be attracted to set up their manufacturing bases in the EEC. Today I am delighted to expand Amata’s cooperation with AIS to bring in advanced 5G technology and other innovations to make manufacturing more efficient and increase the competitiveness of our factories. The new digital infrastructure will allow them to reduce production costs and reduce energy use, and soon Thailand’s industrial sector will be on a par with those in China, South Korea and Japan, where 5G has been previously launched, adding value to their industrial sectors.”

Amata Network Company was established with registered capital of 1 million shares or 100 million baht with Advance Broadband Network (ABN) holding 60% or 60 million baht and Amata Corporation holding 40% or 40 million baht.

Published 26 August 2020