Buying furniture before the house is built

       Dr Sumet Tantivejkul told us about a contest to make a personal quick dish served with brown rice, held recently by the Thai Rice Foundation under Royal Patronage, of which he is the chairman, and inviting candidates from neighbouring countries.
       Malaysia took first place as they could effectively explain the nutritional value of each single ingredient. Thailand finished third.
       "Many Thais are basically subject to superficial concerns - the visual decoration - but cannot further explain what they are doing," said the Thai Rice Foundation chairman.
       Likewise, he said, more than half of Thailand's IT utilisation is inferior, and that the society as a whole suffers from a lack of foundation.
       "I compare this to the house that has not yet been built, but the furniture has already been moved in.
       "We cannot access to the heart of substance because of no foundations have been laid, and its appalling effects are still around today.
       Thailand's IT industry was born at roughly the same time as Singapore's. While Thailand concentrated on hardware, Singapore's priority has been to forbid the government agencies to buy computers. Instead they ask American universities to settle their human resource development programs and IT curricula for bachelor and master's degrees.
       Singapore meanwhile has a committee to consider structure and specification of hardware.
       This combines with a well-timed system that sees graduates ready to start work at the right time,.
       However, Thailand today still has a big stockpile of computers scattering around the country, but lacks enough people with IT skills and qualifications to deal with them.
       Dr Sumet said: "What is strange about Thailand is that the best technicians have skills but no formal education. Their expertise comes from self-learning and practice, but when they come to a certain level they cannot further develop due to lacking a strong academic foundation."
       The solution, Dr Sumet suggested, is that the entire loop must be revamped.
       "But the problem is 'integration', and 'holistic approaches'; all these buzz words that have been bandied around.
       "But when professionals perform, they work independently".