The Government of Thailand has approved the development of a website that will bring together services across all of its agencies, and is scheduled to be launched in three years, Sak Segkhoonthod, President and CEO of Thailand’s E-Government Agency, has told FutureGov.

The biggest challenge for the government will be “how can we make sure that agencies can change the way they do their work,” he said, since agencies will have to work more closely to deliver public services.

The Ministry of ICT will be working closely with the Office of Public Development Committee, he added, which is responsible for getting agencies to how they work and improve their processes.

Segkhoonthod believes that the project shouldn’t be difficult with the technology resources currently available to the government. The portal will be hosted on the cloud, and the user interface will be divided into four sections for citizens, businesses, government officials and investors.

It is crucial that agencies involved in implementing the website understand the architecture of the plan, Segkhoonthod noted. The government is developing a framework which will help them with this: “When you want to implement an IT system, you normally want to take a look at the whole picture. The enterprise architecture framework will guide them on how to move from the current stage to the future stage. So it is a very important factor in making this project a success,” he added.

Ultimately, the success of the project also depends on getting buy-in from the leadership. “Agencies can no longer give excuses that they don’t have money because the government has committed the required budget,” he said.

Segkhoonthod also expects Thailand’s third national ICT masterplan to be approved next month, giving the portal and other e-government projects clearer direction. “E-government is one of the four pillars supporting the country’s ICT strategy. The masterplan will [also] include initiatives to improve participation from citizens and businesses in government,” he said. “There’s going to be a big change in how the government does IT projects.”