Intel has announced a plan to help the Thai government’s ‘digital economy’ campaign using its technologies and knowledge to promote digital literacy, says a report from Nation Multimedia. Intel has previously provided similar training in India.
Two training courses
Worapat Patram, Intel’s public policy director for Southeast Asia, claimed that the firm could start by providing ICT (Information and Communications Technology) training to individuals and to mall and medium enterprises, says the report.
Citing India as an example, where the company trained millions of people using ICT courses to help the government with its ‘National Digital Literary Mission’, Worat claimed to it could provide digital literacy to the people of Thailand in the same manner.
Intel has recently introduced two training courses, namely Easy Step and E-Basics (Entrepreneurship Basics). These courses will help individual Thais and SMEs gain the knowledge of digital literacy essential for the government’s economic policy to succeed. According to Worat, the Easy Step program is intended to teach basic computer skills to participants that will help them develop both personal and professional skills.
“These skills hold the key to driving Thailand into the digital economy more effectively,” Worat noted.
Intel vice president Gordon Graylish said that the major issue in Thailand is the Digital Divide, and the government needs to provide people in the remote areas with access to the internet.
Further, Graylish asserted that the digital economy scheme could be a kind of Third Industrial Revolution, which transformed the lives of a number of people and emphasized on the reality of businesses getting more digital as per the SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) paradigm.
Rise in short interest for Intel
In separate news, Intel was the most shorted stock on NASDAQ between the February 27 and March 13 settlement dates. Intel, displacing Sirius XM as the most-shorted stock. The firm saw a 8.4% rise in the short interest to around 144.49 million shares equaling 3.1% of the company’s float. Apart from Intel and Sirius XM, BlackBerry was also among the five most shorted stock on the exchange
During the short interest period, Intel shares declined by about 7%, while for the same period the S&P 500 was down less than 3%. On Tuesday, Intel closed down 1.31% at $30.79, and year to date, the chip maker is down over 16%.
