DEPA JOINS PACT WITH BRAND’S ESSENCE OF CHICKEN Kicking Off “BRAND’S Brain Camp” to Boost Coding Skills for Youth to Succeed in the Digital World
The Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa), under the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, joins hands with BRAND’S Essence of Chicken by Suntory Beverage & Food (Thailand), to announce the partnership to promote and upgrade digital skills for youth, along with launching the biggest campaign of the year, “BRAND’S Brain Camp”. The campaign aims to increase brain potential and provide comprehensive knowledge to sustainably increase the country’s global competitiveness in all dimensions. Strengthening coding skills is therefore equivalent to arming the young generation with ability to break through all limitations and seize success in the future world of AI.
Mr. Omer Malik, Chief Executive Officer (Thailand & Indochina), Suntory Beverage & Food (Thailand), a leader in Essence of Chicken through 50 good years in Thailand, emphasized the company’s commitment to supporting Thai people’s brain ability and inspiring consumers to maximize their full potential. Moreover, as part of the company’s dedication to give back to society, it has consistently initiated programs to support academic knowledge by helping students across the country prepare readiness for brain development, allowing them to maximize learning potential to enhance academic knowledge and skills.
The BRAND’S Summer Camp is an excellent example for the company’s commitment to uplift education as it features intensive tutoring for students participating in university entrance exams nationwide. Lasting for 31 years, this legendary campaign has been the best in all aspects with the highest number of participating tutors and more than 1.5 million upper secondary students from across Thailand joining.
“This year, BRAND’S continues to foster our value of giving back to society through the development of youth’s brain potential, as well as the provision of support to build knowledge in AI and coding, enabling the young generation to adapt and increase the opportunity to succeed in the rapidly changing world. The determination is aligned with the mission of depa to help Thai people to perform better, think faster and live better in their digitized society. All of these have led to a distinguished rapport through the “BRAND’S Brain Camp” project. The project aims to synergize the dedication between the public and private sectors upholding a shared goal in developing youth’s digital skills. We therefore consider it a great pleasure to have the opportunity to partner with depa in “Coding for a Better Life, Building the Foundation for Thailand’s Future” project.
We would like to thank the Digital Economy Promotion Agency, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, and the Digital Economy and Society Development Fund for presenting this collaboration opportunity and allowing us to be part of this innovative and socially responsible project.”
Ms. Jaturaporn Thanapornsungsuth, Vice President – Head of Marketing (Thailand & Indochina), Suntory Beverage & Food (Thailand), provided further remarks, stating that the “BRAND’s Brain Camp” is the year’s notable campaign that truly focuses on developing brain potential by raising the awareness, within not only Thai youth, but also instructors and educational personnel, as well as parents and families, in order to promote system-wide learning, which will eventually lead to a concrete and sustainable development of knowledge and skills for the future digital world. The transformation will serve as a robust groundwork for driving economic and global competitiveness through the creation of integrated activities that facilitate the learning of AI and the discovery of individual needs, comprising the following activities:
- BRAND’S Brain Hub Website: The teen-hub project helps learners discover their interests and needs through an interactive survey, contents of the future digital world, and online courses provided by depa, starting from the basic of AI.
- AI Roadshow Activity in 8 provinces nationwide that features an AI Inspiring talk show, led by AI experts from different professions, which will inspire interests of participating students. The activity also includes an Intensive Coding Bootcamp from depa and an Exhibition Roadshow to provide basic digital knowledge to over 20,000 attendees, including parents and the general public.
- Coding Classroom Upgrade Activity Students aged 6-18 years old and instructors will be provided with Micro:bit, the micro controller board designed for coding, adjusting and controlling, with more than 20 courses formulated to deliver easy and fun learning. The activity aims to build coding knowledge within schools across the country under the “Coding for a Better Life” project, with a total budget contribution of over 1 million baht.
- Support Coding War Competition under Coding for a Better Life Project The coding skill battle will be held to select the top 10 best projects from more than 5,000 student contestants from across Thailand. Winners will receive scholarships from BRAND’S Essence of Chicken to support further competition at the international level.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin, PhD., President, the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa), disclosed that presently, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society and depa strive to drive the National AI Strategy as a guideline for advancing the country’s AI technology, comprising five important elements; including AI Importer, preparing to support AI development from outside of the country; AI Provider, promoting AI development within the country; AI Distributor, applying AI to develop digital services; AI Manpower, preparing the digital workforce in the field of AI; and AI User, creating awareness of safe use of AI for Thai people; all of which are highlighted to support depa’s belief in coding knowledge and skills as the important foundation for success in the world of AI.
With this, depa has implemented the “Coding for a Better Life” project to build a foundation for Thailand’s future. The objectives are to increase the number of teachers who are ready to pass on coding knowledge and skills to the next generation of students, and to upgrade the infrastructure to support digital learning. These will not only prepare a strong foundation for the development of the country but will also solve the problem of digital workforce shortage that has existed for a long time. All these developments are to achieve the goal of increasing the potential of the country’s digital human capital, the third engine of the policy, to drive the digital economy and society by The Ministry of Digital Economy or The Growth Engine of Thailand.
“BRAND’S Brain Camp” project marks the outstanding partnership between the public and private sectors to realize their common goal, which is to cultivate AI knowledge for Thais from a young age. This way, the betterment and sustainable growth of society can be achieved faster. Thai youth will grow to be quality digital manpower, enabling them to contribute to the development of the national economy in an efficient way.
