Thai ICT policy and the globalising role of the internet

This chapter deals with the role of globalisation in the development of Thai ICT policy. Much is made of the effects of globalisation on economic and social structures (Stiglitz, 2002; LeGrain, 2002; Drahos and Braithwaite, 2002), on the ethics of globalisation (Singer, 2002), and on the impacts in various sectors and segmentations within a society (Sheil, 2001). However almost no attention has been paid to the importance of globalistion as an effect on ICT policy. This is especially important because so many countries have invested considerable resources in ICT developments and positioned their national status according to their technology use (Corbitt and Thanasankit, 2002; Corbitt, 1999). Thailand has made ICT a significant element of government policy. This chapter discussed the globalisation impacts on the development and changes in that policy over a seven-year period