New govt agency to manage ‘big data’

Public information will direct policies

The government has created the Big Data Institute (BDI), a public agency that will handle the massive amount of data generated by the public and state agencies.

The BDI, announced in the Royal Gazette on Friday, is expected to be up and running within 180 days, said Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin, president and chief executive of the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa).

The agency will supersede the Government Big Data Institute (GBDi), opened in May 2019.

Mr Nuttapon said the BDI will become the first public agency in the country to use big data to drive economic and social developments and direct future policies.

The institute will engage sectors that want to use its big data to help solve issues hampering their work, increase their productivity, or write economic-related policies.

The…