Thailand Law Journal 2013 Fall Issue 1 Volume 16

The Laws and Policies of Thailand in Supporting Electronic Commerce*

By Orabhund Panuspatthna**

1. Introduction

The objective of this article is to find the answer whether Thailand has such proper policies and laws to support the growth of trade via electronic commerce. In order to  fulfill  the objective, the author will  divide the article  into  four parts as follows;

Part One - Overview of Electronic Commerce: This part will give meaning and illustrate the available types of electronic commerce.  It will  also indicate the advantages of electronic commerce, as well as, its value of trade in Thailand;

Part Two - Policies of Thailand Concerning Electronic Commerce: This part will demonstrate the policies and master plans of Thailand which concern electronic commerce;

Part Three - The Laws Relating to Electronic Commerce: The third part will review the present legal provisions in Thailand, both directly and indirectly, relating to electronic commerce in order to analyze whether these provisions facilitate and support the growth of electronic commerce in Thailand; and

Part Four - Conclusion.

Part One: Overview of Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce is a new form of trade which has played an important role in modern trade at both national and international levels. In general term,"electronic commerce" means the dispatch and/or receipt of data message by electronic means in order to conclude a commercial transaction. This data message covers all kind of information whether expressed in form of a letter, number, sound or image. Classic example of electronic commerce is on-line trading which is buying and selling goods and providing service over electronic networks.

The reason that drives electronic commerce to become a major role player in current trade is that business traders realize of excessive benefits of electronic commerce that can be elaborated as follows:¹

1. Electronic commerce changes the culture of trade from a traditional style of trade that located at one certain place of business with definite working hours into a modern style of trade. Trade in modern style can operate anytime online through electronic networks with no need to have a physical business working place since meetings between sellers and buyers are no longer necessary.
2. Businesses are better to reach their customers across border. Timezone differences can even more become an advantage.
3.Electronic commerce can reduce costs of business doing in the aspects of Both time saving and expense saving.

Electronic commerce trading can be classified into three available types²

1) Business to Business (B2B) is a type of electronic buying and selling or service providing which is done between business sectors. For instance transaction between manufacturer and exporter or that between importer and exporter.

2) Business to Government (B2G) is a type of sale or service providing which is done between business sector as one side and a government unit on the other.

3) Business to Consumer (B2C) is a type of sale or service providing which is directly offered to customers. For example buying a CD from Amazon.com is the most famiiliar example of electronic commerce of B2C type.

The survey statistic of The National Statistical Office of Thailand showed that in the year 2007, among the three types of electronic commerce trading B2C took the highest share at 72.5 percent of electronic market. B2B was the second whose share in the market was at 27.2 percent while B2G was the last of 0.3 percent share.³

The same survey also showed that the total value of online trade to the year 2007 was 427,460 million Baht. B2G type took 55.4 percent of 233,982 million Baht, whereas B2B type took 29.8 percent of 127,325 million Baht and B2C type took only 14.8 percent of 63,425 million Baht.⁴

Part Two: Policies of Thailand Concerning Electronic Commerce

Currently Thailand has two major policies on electronic commerce along with a master plan and another draft master plan.

1. IT 2000 Policy Framework
On February 20th, 1996 Thai cabinet announced its first national policy on information technology called "IT 2000 Policy Framework." This policy framework set out a national guideline to promote and develop building and exploitation of Information technology within the country. Its implementation covered the five year period during the years 1996 to 2000.

2. IT 2010 Policy Framework
Later in the year 2000, the National Commission on Information Technology announced the second national policy framework. It was named "IT 2010 Policy Framework" aiming to cover the ten year period during 2001 to 2010. This framework emphasized on role of information technology as a tool to drive the country's economic and social development.

3.Master Plan for Development of Information and Communications Technologies ( ICT Master Plan ) of 2002-2006

As ten year implementation of the IT 2010 Policy Framework was too long and no longer suitable to the rapid change of information technology; the Ministry of Science and Technology in cooperation with The National Economic and Social Development Board, consequently, established the strategic master plan on information technology. This master plan covered the xame tive year period as that of the Ninth National Economic and Social Development Plan i.e., from 2002 to 2006.

The Master Plan of 2002 - 2006 was set up to implement the IT 2010 Policy Framework into practice by imposing the related government agencies to set out their visions, missions, strategies and performance plans in accordance with the provisions of the IT 2010 Policy Framework. Those related government agencies were obliged to accomplish their missions within five years.

4. Draft ICT Master Plan of 2009 - 2010

After the end of the first ICT Master Plan, on September 11th, 2007; the cabinet issued a resolution to extend its implementation until the end of the year 2008.

Draft of the new ICT Master Plan is now under the arrangement of the Ministry of Science and Technology in cooperation with the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies. Its vision is that Thailand shall be a smart society with information literate. It will build and exploit the country's information and communications technologies smartly under the philosophy of sustainable development.

* This article is derived from the author's presentation of the same title, delivered at the 6th Asian Law Institute (ASLI) Annual Conference held in Hong Kong, May 30th, 2009.

** LL.B. (Hons), Chulalongkorn University LL.M., Harvard Law School Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University

1 Orabhund Panuspatthna, law on Electronic Commerce (Bangkok : Nitimam Publishing, 2002), p.4.

2 International Institute for Trade and Development, "Research Study on Guideline for Implementation of E-Commerce in TNZCEPa" Bangkok, 2007, p. 10.

3 The National Statistical Office of Thailand, "Survey Status of Electronic Commerce in Thailand," Bangkok, 2007.

4 Ibid.

5 The Royal Decree Prescribing Civil and Commercial Transactions Excluded from The Electronic Transactions Act of B.E. 2549 (2006), section 3.