Thailand to buy 900,000 tablets from China for School Children
on February 15th, 2012 
Thailand has teamed up with China to provide tablet computers to the kids in Thai schools. According to a recent report from FutureGov, Thailand is buying up to 900,000 tablets from China via a government-to-government contract for a One Tablet per Child scheme.
The two countries have already signed a memorandum of understanding on the planned procurement.
“We are negotiating the price and payment options with China,” he said. He also expected the negotiations to conclude this month,” said Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Minister Anudith Nakornthap . He added that the negotiation would be based on mutual benefit.
According to Nakornthap, the Thai government had already approved a THB1.9-billion budget (US$63.3 million) for the procurement of 560,000 tablets to the Ministry of Education. However, more funds would be needed because the Education Ministry plans to distribute the devices to all 860,000 first graders before the start of the semester in May, and give some to the kids in other grades.
“The Cabinet will be asked to approve the additional budget and purchase of tablets at its meeting next Tuesday,” he said.
The government’s tablet specification consists of a seven-inch display, a 1-gigahertz dual-core processor, 512 MB RAM, 16 GB of storage memory, wireless LAN support of 802.11b/g/n, 6 hours of battery life, and Google’s Android version of 3.2 Honeycomb operating system. It must also meet the Federal Communications Commission’s safety standards.
Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo are reported to be the three prospective Chinese suppliers for this tablet. A source from Education Ministry’s Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) has said that Huawei is likely to win the contract as the company had offered the lowest tablet prices of US$60 per unit. But, the two governments are still in discussions and are yet to finalize the tablet supplier.
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