The Commerce Ministry has vowed to continue supporting and promoting the digital content industry, aiming to raise 3.5 billion baht's worth of digital content export revenue this year, up from 1.8 billion baht last year.
According to Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, his ministry sees digital content as a pivotal industry to drive economic growth this year and remains committed to positioning Thailand as Asia's leader in the sector.
"The Commerce Ministry wants the country's digital content industry to use soft power to reflect Thai identity in all digital content, be it in movies, TV series, games, or animation," said Mr Jurin. "This helps to not only sell Thainess, Thai art and culture, but also add economic value to the country."
According to the Commerce Ministry in 2020, Thailand's digital content industry was worth about 200 billion baht, with 153 billion baht of that stemming from the television and movie industries.
Given the growth prospects of digital content industries, Mr Jurin has directed the International Trade Promotion Department to accelerate its promotional activities throughout the year.
To continue promoting the digital content industry, the Commerce Ministry is scheduled to host the third edition of the online trade show Multimedia Online Virtual Exhibition (Move), featuring a business matching platform for digital content entrepreneurs, between Aug 1-3.
The Move event was first organised by the Commerce Ministry in 2019, and the second event was held in May this year.
According to Mr Jurin, the latest edition of Move will focus mainly on promoting entrepreneurs in online-related movies and animation services. The event will involve two key activities: business matching between 30 Thai online content producers and 40-50 potential foreign buyers, and a content pitching event in which five Thai companies will be allowed to negotiate deals with 15 foreign buyers.
Mr Jurin said that since the Move event was first held, the Commerce Ministry has created trade value in the digital content industry, both domestically and via exports, to the tune of 11.6 billion baht, 7.32 billion baht of which was from movies, 3.51 billion baht from animations and characters, 706 million baht from games, and 90 million baht from e-learning.
According to the International Trade Promotion Department, the Move 2022 event expects to attract at least 10,000 potential buyers and importers from the global film industry to its move-ditp.com website.
It is estimated that there will be at least 200 business negotiations between Thai and foreign entrepreneurs, creating a trade value for the movie industry of at least 500 million baht.
