Thailand’s ICT minister Uttama Savanayana has resigned as reports circulate that the ICT Ministry will be relaunched as the Digital Economy Ministry later this week.
The Cabinet yesterday (13 September) approved Uttama’s resignation and appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Junta leader Air Chief Marshal Prajin Janthong as acting ICT Minister. The ICT Minister did not attend the cabinet meeting.
Prime Minister and Junta leader General Prayut Chanocha said that the move was to pave way for the launch of the new Digital Economy Ministry but he refused to confirm if Uttama would be appointed to the new post or not.
Local media have quoted unnamed sources saying that three people are in the running for Thailand’s first Digital Economy Minister - Incumbent Uttama, National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Secretary-General Takorn Tantasit and an unnamed “senior figure” in the finance ministry.
However, General Prayuth said that Cabinet Secretariat Ampon Kittiampon, who was also rumoured to be in the running, was not in the picture for a ministerial post. Ampon shot to fame as cabinet secretariat when he quietly took the blame for the Single Gateway mass surveillance project that General Prayuth said was simply a clerical error by the person taking notes at the cabinet meeting.
Takorn resigned from the NBTC last year with rumours that he wanted to become ICT Minister after the previous minister resigned. His resignation was later rejected by the NBTC board chairman Air Chief Marshal Thares Punsri and Uttama got the job.
Uttama became the second ICT Minister appointed under the current military regime on 19 August 2015 succeeding Pornchai Rujiprapa. He was seen as part of a package deal to kickstart the economy that included Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak who was also Thaksin Shinawatra’s finance minister. Before the appointment Uttama was president of Bangkok University and Somkid was Chairman of the university board.
However in one of his final tasks as ICT Minister Uttama has become embroiled in controversy in a $430 million (15 billion baht) rural broadband project by state owned telco TOT. The project is under investigation by the office of the auditor-general. On 10 September Uttama held a press conference saying the budget watchdog simply misunderstood things. The ICT Minister said that normal USO budget rules do not apply as it is not investment in telecoms, but rather the TOT project was about investing in the country’s competitiveness.