Legislator Questions Thailand's Cloud-First Policy Efficiency

At a parliamentary budget hearing on September 8, Legislator Kaladee Liawpairoj scrutinized the Ministry of Digital Economy for Society's 13.6 billion baht budget allocation, pointing out that a special committee reduced it by only 25.8 million baht—a mere 0.19 percent, well below the average reduction for other ministries.

Kaladee highlighted flaws in the government's Cloud First policy, noting that while direct cloud rental by individual agencies decreased by 10 percent from 1.523 billion baht to 1.359 billion baht, total cloud spending jumped over 50 percent when combined with the Government Data Center and Cloud project budget of 4.98 billion baht. The GDCC budget alone surged 120 percent, effectively doubling. She further identified significant redundancy: 45 agencies continue operating separate cloud services worth over 1 billion baht collectively, while more than 40 agencies plan to establish their own data centers for nearly 1 billion baht—despite GDCC's existence. Agencies resist GDCC due to concerns about data migration complexity and security assurance.

Kaladee warned that current spending prioritizes infrastructure and rental fees rather than data platforms and applications. With annual cloud rental already exceeding 1 billion baht after just two years, projections suggest costs could reach 50 billion baht if the government continues leasing without building robust technological infrastructure. She cited the Meteorology Department's duplicate projects—a 492 million baht weather forecasting upgrade and a 58 million baht operations center—as wasteful when Thailand already possesses satellite and weather data capabilities through GISTDA, the National Astronomical Research Institute, and other agencies. She recommended consolidating data across agencies instead and requested budget cuts in these overlapping allocations.