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Thailand.com takes Thai global — Thai Computerworld
April 16-30, 2000

BANGKOK (Thai Computerworld) - The Nation Group's subsidiary, Thai Portal, has taken control of the URL www.thailand.com and plans to offer a complete portal for traveling and export in the country.

The site is seen as another tangible step in the country's advance towards an e-commerce marketplace.

Though the portal only offers basic features today, the complete information gateway with unique features will be launched in mid-June, said executives.

At the signing ceremony with IBM (Thailand), a deal worth up to Bt100 million which will see the portal have unlimited access to big Blue's total e-business solutions, Thanachai Theerapatvong, chairman & chief executive officer of Thai Portal Co., Ltd., Said, "We will focus our portal site on traveling and export-related businesses but at a worldwide level. By signing a total e-business solutions deal with IBM, our portal will be ready on the e-commerce-related side with the most comprehensive, reliable and scalable system."

The Nation Group has already shown how aggressive it can be when it comes to the Internet market, recently inking deals with deals with Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT), forming new entities like the Nation Digital Media and Thai Portal Co., Ltd. and establishing new start up companies such as stt-nation.com Ltd.

Thai Portal is set to become the so-called gateway for South East Asia and is aimed at attracting foreigners who are looking for traveling experiences and/or need export - related business information.

Thanachai added, "We want to make our portal to world-class standard, so we need the total e-commerce solutions from IBM to make sure that we can attain our target."

Sermsin Samalapa, president & Chief operating officer of Thai Portal Co., Ltd. Said, "We considered many e-commerce solution providers to be our partner, but we eventually chose IBM because of its technology, team composition, price structure and commitment to make e-commerce happen in Thailand."

www.Thailand.com is a strategy of the Nation Group, a large local media/publishing company, to expand its business into the emerging Internet technologies. The group covers radio, Thai and English newspaper, and TV.

Wanarak Eckachai, general manager of IBM (Thailand) said, the deal would reflect the emerging business modal that IBM has termed the Next Generation. IBM will provide its total e-commerce solutions from back-office to front-office for Thailand.com.

Thanwa Laohasiriwong, country manager of IBM (Thailand), said that IBM would provide full Web infrastructure for the portal including hardware, networked PCs, database server DB2 Universal, Web development Application server, Studio, Performance Pack and Commerce, management tools and security system, Secureway.

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