The National Innovation Agency is set to launch a four-year program to foster the founding of 10,000 new startups by 2027 as a means of spurring corporate innovation and nurturing the adoption of new technologies.

The program “will increase the number of innovative companies and improve the productivity of the Thai economy,” Krithpaka Boonfueng, Executive Director of the National Innovation Agency (NIA), told the Nikkei Asian Review. “We aim to be among the top 30 countries in the world in terms of technological innovation by 2030,” she added.

Thailand has produced several successful startups with potential for high growth, but the number of startups in the Kingdom has lagged some other nations in the region such as Indonesia, Malaysia, China, South Korea and Japan. Some analysts have said that the local ecosystem for startups hasn’t developed quickly or comprehensively enough.

One area they have pointed to that they say needs greater support is financing.

The government is taking that advice. It will allocate $138 million to the NIA’s grants and investment funds over the next four years. That would double the money it allocated for the previous four years. In search of even more substantial private-sector investments, the agency also serves as a matchmaker for startups and venture capitalists and venture funds. The NIA’s funds will be focused on five areas: agriculture, medicine, tourism, soft power, and energy, including electric vehicles.

The Nikkei wrote that Thailand's conservative nature has hindered technological innovation in some areas. One of the main areas would be financial technology or fintech, which is producing a wealth of startups in many countries. Many of them involve digital or cryptocurrencies.

Thai financial regulators have taken a cautious approach to cryptocurrencies, restricting their use for certain purposes, setting up sandboxes to test their value and potential while shielding average consumers from their risks.

Many of Thailand’s largest private banks, meanwhile, have been investing aggressively in fintech and startups, both in Thailand and overseas, to stay level with the global competition in the finance industry.