Sweden pledges help for Cyber City plan

PHUKET TOWN: A conference held today to lay out government plans for turning Phuket into a “Cyber City” heard a pledge of substantial support for the project from the Swedish government. “Sweden stands ready to provide financing for consultancy studies,” Swedish Ambassador Jan Nordlander told the meeting. “We are also ready to provide training in information technology at an advanced level.” He also said the Swedish government would “mobilize corporate support” for the project, a major part of plans for Phuket to become an “International City”. The conference, which drew a capacity crowd of 200 at the Pearl Hotel, included speeches by Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwankiri and most of Phuket’s top politicians and administrators. The cost of turning Phuket into a major center for software development and other IT and Internet businesses is estimated at around 40 billion baht.