Bangkok Time:
Glossary of Terms and Acronyms
| Term or Acronym | Description |
|---|---|
| 3GPP | Originally the Third Generation standards body; now for 5G. More |
| ABAC | APEC Business Advisory Council |
| ABTC | ASEAN Business Travel Card |
| ACN | Anti-Corruption Network. A private-sector body. Former name (up to 2012) of Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand (ACT), see ACT. More |
| ACT | Anti Corruption Organisation of Thailand, a Foundation from 2014. Formerly ACN. More |
| ADSL | Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (see also DSL); a lower speed broadband technology using copper wires. xDSL indicates variants |
| AEC | ASEAN Economic Community |
| AFAS | ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services |
| Agile | A mode of project management including software development where requirements change continually to fit the result and options at the end of each stage. Contrast 'waterfall' where all requirements are stated up front and any changes are formal variations. More and more |
| AIC | Asia Internet Coalition |
| AMS | ASEAN Member State |
| APEC | Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation; a forum for 21 Pacific-rim member economies that seeks to promote open trade and practical economic cooperation. Established 1989. More and More |
| ASEAN | Association of Southeast Asian Nations |
| ASEAN CSAP | Consolidated Strategic Action Plan (part of the AEC 2025 Blueprint) |
| ASOCIO | Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organisation (regional grouping - ATCI is Thailand member) |
| ASW | ASEAN Single Window (for customs) |
| ATCI | Association of Thai ICT Industry (formerly called Association of Thai Computer Industry) |
| ATIGA | ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement |
| ATISA | ASEAN Trade in Services Agreement; post-dates AFAS |
| ATR | ASEAN Trade Repository |
| ATSI | Association of Thai Software Industry |
| B2B | Business to Business – an eCommerce term |
| B2C | Business to Consumer – an eCommerce term; see also G2C |
| BE | Buddhist Era; calendar used for Thai dates which is typically 543 years more than the Gregorian calendar, using AD (Anno Domini -the year of our Lord, referring to the birth of Christ). eg AD 2017 = BE 2560. |
| BMA | Bangkok Metropolitan Administration |
| Bogor Goals | APEC goals for trade and investment liberalization which were defined at the APEC Leaders’ Meeting in Bogor, Indonesia in 1994. They are the basis of Business Mobility which underpins the ABTC. More |
| BOI | Board of Investment |
| BoI | Bureau of Immigration |
| BoT | Bank of Thailand; (more commonly than Board of Trade) |
| BOT | Build - Operate - Transfer. Most commonly a way of creating and running concession-era hard infrastructure in the telecoms sector in Thailand. |
| BSA | Business Software Alliance |
| BTO | Build-Transfer-Operate (see also BOT) |
| CAC | Collective Action Coalition Against Corruption, a private sector project of Thai IoD which acts as the secretariat. More See also ACT. |
| CCA | Computer Crimes Act 2007 amended 2017 |
| CCM | Creative Chiang Mai - previously Chiang Mai Creative City Development organization. |
| CDN | Content Delivery Network |
| CHE | Commission of Higher Education |
| Competency Framework | A structure for classifying and describing skills, often based on an industry or sector. |
| CPTPP | Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership; also known as TPP11. |
| CSF | Critical Success Factor |
| CTS | Council for Trade in Services. The discussion and disputes resolution body of GATS, based in Geneva. |
| Data Localisation | The requirement that data must be maintained (hosted) in one national jurisdiction and not sent across borders, or even kept on-premises. Justification is about sensitive medical or financial information and may be on nationalistic grounds. More |
| DB | 'Doing Business' term used by World Bank for the ease of doing business rankings relying on ten criteria. |
| DBD | Department of Business Development in MoC |
| DE | See MDES |
| DoE | Department of Employment (in MoL) |
| DEPA | Digital Economy Promotion Agency |
| DFT | Department of Foreign Trade, in MoC |
| Digitisation | or Digitalisation. The process of reform whereby an organization goes digital, meaning it is transformed to support data collection, analysis and application; revised business processes and automation. A key part of Industry 4.0 |
| DIP | Department of Intellectual Property, in MOC |
| DITP | Department of International Trade Promotion in MoC |
| DLA | Department of Local Administration |
| DSL | Digital subscriber line (variants include VDSL, ADSL; generically xDSL) |
| EABC | European Association for Business and Commerce (like a 'Eurocham Thailand'); a Trade Association |
| EAEU | Eurasian Economic Union; so far with five member states |
| EC | European Council sets the general political directions and priorities of the EU through heads of government as Council members; European Commission is an executive cabinet of public officials, led by an indirectly elected President. EC more commonly refers to the European Commission |
| EDTA | Electronic Transactions Development Agency |
| EEC | Eastern Economic Corridor, a special regime zone located in the Eastern Seaboard |
| EGA | Electronic Government Agency |
| EGAT | Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand |
| ETDA | Electronic Transactions Development Agency |
| ETSI | European standards body for telecommunications. More here |
| EU | European Union -political and economic confederation of 28 European states. |
| EUABC | EU-ASEAN Business Council, mainly dominated by large companies rather than by regional 'Eurocham' members |
| EUD | Delegation of the EU |
| FBA | Foreign Business Act AD 1999 BE 2542 |
| FDI | Foreign Direct Investment |
| FDN | Foreign Dominance Notification (revised and re-issued in 2012 by NBTC) |
| FEA | Foreign Employment Act AD 2008. Defines 'work' in s. 5. Replaced by a labour Decree which can into effect on 23 June 2017, where subsequently the coming into force of four sections was deferred to January 2018 via a s.44 order. |
| FEL | Foreign Equity Limits |
| FTA | Free Trade Agreement |
| FTI | Federation of Thai Industries |
| FTTH | Fibre-to-the-home |
| FTTN | Fibre-to-the-node |
| FTTP | Fibre-to-the-premises |
| G2C | Government to Citizen. An on-line term |
| G2G | Government to Government. An on-line term for intra-government interaction |
| G.fast | a digital subscriber line (DSL) protocol for local loops shorter than 500 m, with performance targets around 500 Mbps |
| G.hn | Giga home networking with data rates around 1 Gbps. An ITU-T standard under the G.9963 standard |
| GATS | General Agreement on Trade in Services. Four Modes of service trade |
| GATT | General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade |
| G-DSL | Same as G.hn but introduced in Thailand at TOT in 2017 as G-DSL (Gigabit over cobber wire, coaxial cables or power lines) |
| GDPR | General Data Protection Regulation entering into force May 2018. Replaces the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. Designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe. More |
| GMS | Greater Mekong Subregion |
| GSM | Global System for Mobiles |
| GSMA | GMS Association - GSM based industry association for mobile operators |
| GSP | Generalised System of Preferences. A programme of preferences on tariffs which developed countries grant developing countries; developing countries can export some specific industrial and semi-industrial products into developed countries with a much lower level of tariffs than for developed countries. |
| HetNet | Heterogeneous Network - eg WiFi + LTE |
| HSPA | High Speed Packet Access (a mobile cellular multiplexing standard) |
| ICSID | International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, a World Bank body established 1966. Main activity: private investor: foreign investor state. Of 166 signatories, Thailand is one of only 8 non members. More |
| IEAT | Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand |
| IEEE | US based standards body, publishing standards for WiFi for example (802.11) |
| Industrie 4.0 / Industry 4.0 | Connected, intelligent industry. More: intelligent, networked systems: previously separated production environments are combined to produce universal production worlds, which are partly of a physical nature, and partly attain a new functionality in the cyber space of web connectivity. (from Beckhoff). See also Thailand 4.0 |
| IoT | Internet of Things |
| IPR | Intellectual Property Rights |
| IPTV | Internet Protocol Television; distribution of video programming (one way) by means of the Internet Protocol. |
| ISACA | Information Systems Audit & Control Ass'n (has a Bangkok chapter) |
| ITA | IT Agreement, a WTO agreement most recently done in 2015 with updates through 2017 |
| ITGI | IT Governance Institute |
| ITIL | IT Infrastructure Library |
| ITSMF | IT Service Management Forum |
| ITSS | IT Skill Standards for IT Professionals |
| ITU | International Telecommunications Union (UN agency) |
| JETRO | Japan Regional Trade Organisation. More here |
| JSCCIB | Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking, comprising the Thai Bankers Association, Board of Trade and FTI. |
| KPI | Key Performance Indicator |
| KWh | Kilowatt hours, A measure of electricity consumption - I,000 watts used for one hour. |
| LFA | Licence Facilitation Act |
| LTE | Long Term Evolution - the '4G' standard in the GSM world |
| M Industry | Ministry of Industry |
| M2M | Machine-to-machine |
| MB, GB | MegaBytes, GigaBytes (a size) |
| Mbps | Mega bits per second (a speed or rate of data flow) |
| MDES | Ministry of Digital Economy & Society, successor to MICT. Sometimes called 'DE' |
| MEA | Metropolitan Electricity Authority |
| MFA | Ministry of Foreign Affairs. |
| MHz, GHz | Typically used to refer to wavelengths or parts of the spectrum. Hz = hertz (frequency). Mega, Giga. |
| MICT | Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, succeeded by MDES. |
| MNO | Mobile Network Operator |
| MoC | Ministry of Commerce; with more Departments than most Ministries. Departments/Agenices |
| MoE | Ministry of Education |
| MoF | Ministry of Finance |
| MoI | Ministry of the Interior |
| MoL | Ministry of Labour |
| MoT | Ministry of Tourism |
| MoU | Minutes of Use (used in telecoms); Memorandum of Understanding |
| Mpbs per MHz | A measure of spectral efficiency - speed per amount of bandwidth available. |
| MRA | Mutual Recognition Arrangement, an AEC instrument for recognition of skills in about eight professions or callings. |
| MSM | Multi-stakeholder model, a form of internet governance which recognises civil society, business, government. |
| MSME | Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. See also SME |
| MVNA | Mobile Virtual Network Aggregator |
| MVNE | Mobile Virtual Network Enabler |
| MVNO | Mobile Virtual Network Operator |
| MWh | Megawatt hours. A measure of electricity consumption. |
| NACC | National Anti-Corruption Commission |
| NBH | National Broadband Holding Co. Holding company which is planned to administer Thailand's rural (and possibly wider) broadband policy |
| NBN | National Broadband Network; a generic term in many countries (and specific in some - eg Australia) |
| NBTC | National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission |
| NCCC | National Counter Corruption Commission (former name of NACC, changed in 2008) |
| NCPO | National Council for Peace and Order (military junta) |
| NECTEC | National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre |
| NESDB | National Economic and Social Development Board |
| NewTech | Generic term; refers to areas of newer application-based technology for enterprise or consumer use, including FinTech (finance and banking services applications); RegTech (using technology to facilitate delivery of regulatory requirements); MediTech (medical technology); EduTech etc. |
| NLA | National Legislative Assembly (current unicameral parliament) |
| Notification | A subordinate law, made under an Act or Decree; can also refer to an interpretation of a law. |
| NRC | National Reform Council |
| NRSA | National Reform Steering Assembly, an organ of the NCPO More |
| NSTDA | National Science & Technology Development Agency |
| NSW | National Single Window (for customs) |
| NTB | Non Tariff Barrier |
| NTC | National Telecommunications Commission, the predecessor to the NBTC; in operation 2004 to 2011. Its sister body NBC (National Broadcasting Commission) was never formed. The 2007 constitution required a 'merged' regulator, hence the NBTC. |
| NTMs | Non-Tariff Measures |
| OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) | a machine to machine communication protocol for industrial automation developed by the OPC Foundation. More and more |
| OPDC | Office of Public Sector Development Commission |
| OSMEP | Office of SME Promotion, a statutory authority |
| OSOS | One Start One Stop Investment Centre, a BOI run facility More |
| OTT | Over-The-Top; delivery of content over a network without the involvement of a multiple-system operator in the control or distribution of the content; content rides on a network provided on an open basis by network operator. Some argue that OTT operators unfairly use data network capacity without compensating network operator. |
| P2P | Computing or networking via a distributed application architecture which partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application |
| P2P lending | Lending money to individuals or businesses through online services that match lenders with borrowers (Peer to Peer) |
| PACC | Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission |
| PATA | Pacific Asia Travel Association |
| PCA | Pattaya City Administration |
| PEA | Provincial Electricity Authority |
| PPP | Public Private Partnership - based on a law of the same name. |
| PPP | Purchasing Power Parity (a GDP adjustment for per capita GDP). |
| RCEP | Regional Comprehensive and Economic Partnership. 16 participants. More |
| ROO | Rules of Origin (for trade in goods, and customs) |
| Rule of Law | The concept that Laws enacted by a recognized process, as part of a system of law, rule over all other means of power and control. More and More. 'Law and Order' is a different concept. |
| s.44 | A provision of the interim charter allowing the NCPO to make orders which have the status of law. Although the interim charter is succeeded by the 2017 Constitution, s. 265 of the Constitution allows for continued use of s.44. |
| SAP SMED | ASEAN Strategic Action Plan for SME Development More. See also SME and MSME |
| SIPA | Software Industry Promotion Agency, under MICT. Now reconstituted as Digital Economy Development Agency (DEPA) under MDES. |
| SOE | State-Owned Enterprise |
| SME | Small and Medium Enterprises |
| SPA | Asia Oceania Regional Software Park Alliance |
| Spectral Efficiency | The capacity of a defined amount of bandwidth to support data throughput – usually measured in Mbps per MHz of bandwidth. Depends on the multiplexing process which has various standards. |
| STC | Strategic Talent Centre BOI promotion for Skills, Technology, Industry |
| STI | National Science Technology and Innovation Policy Office More |
| TAA | Trade Associations Act, governs the form of organization known as an Association or Trade Association |
| TAT | Tourism Authority of Thailand |
| TBA | Telecom Business Act (amended in 2006) |
| TCA | Trade Competition Act AD 1999, BE 2542; amended 2017 |
| TCC | Thai Chamber of Commerce (one of constituent bodies Board of Trade) |
| TCEB | Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (under PMs office) |
| TCT | Tourism Council of Thailand (combination of THA, ATTA, Thai Inter, TAT and several other industry bodies under the Tourism Act) |
| TCT [sic] | Telecom Association of Thailand |
| TDRI | Thailand Development Research Institute |
| TELMIN | An ASEAN body; Telecommunications Ministers Meeting |
| TELSOM | An ASEAN body; Telecommunications Senior Officials meeting |
| TFA | Trade Facilitation Agreement, a WTO agreement. (There is no Investment Facilitation Agreement in WTO, some states argue that investment is a bilateral matter). More |
| Thai IOD | Thailand Institute of Directors More |
| Thailand 4.0 | A national vision based on the assumptions and principles of Industry 4.0 |
| TICA | Thai Incentive and Convention Association |
| TISA | Thailand Information Security Association. More |
| TiSA | Plurilateral Trade in Services Agreement; made outside GATS |
| TPP11 | Trans-Pacific Partnership without the US; also known as Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). |
| TRIDI | Telecommunications Research and Industrial Development Institute (part of NBTC)) |
| TRIPS | WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights |
| USF | Universal Service Fund |
| USO | Universal Service Obligation |
| VAT | Value Added Tax. Levied on wholesale and retail sales (check definition). Currently at 7% |
| WHT | Withholding Tax - levied on income; rate varies depending on application More |
| WTO | World Trade Organization |
Royal Thai Government
Top level organisations are Ministries. Within Ministries are Departments and Agencies.
Examples: Ministry of Commerce has several Departments including DBD (Department of Business Development);
Some Exceptions:
Board of Investment is a statutory agency established by the Investment Promotion Act (IPA). It is in the OPM (Office of Prime Minister).
Bureau of Immigration is a Bureau of the Royal Thai Police.