MDES-ETDA Opens AIGW 2026, Showcasing Thailand's Readiness to Become a Regional AI Governance Hub

Bangkok - 7 July, 2026 - The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES), through the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), and its AI Governance Center (AIGC), officially opened AI Governance Week 2026 (AIGW 2026), Thailand's international platform on AI Governance, held under the theme "Connecting the Right Dots: From Global AI Principles to Real-World Practice."

Taking place from 29 June to 3 July 2026 at Eastin Grand Hotel Phayathai Bangkok and Mandarin Hotel Bangkok, the event brings together policymakers, international organizations, leading technology companies, and experts from the business, finance, education, law, justice, and AI Governance from Thailand and abroad.

With more than 40 leading organizations participating, AIGW 2026 serves as a platform to exchange insights on how global AI Governance principles can be translated into real-world implementation in the Thai context. The event also highlights Thailand's readiness to become a regional hub for AI Governance through three key mechanisms: AIGPC, the AI EIA Playbook & Toolkits, and AI Red Teaming. Over the five-day event, more than 1,000 participants from Thailand and overseas are expected to attend.

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H.E. Chaichanok Chidchob, Minister of digital economy and society of the Kingdom of Thailand, presided over the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote address titled "Driving Thailand's AI Development Towards Global Partnerships." He emphasized that AI is no longer a technology of the future, but a critical technology that is transforming the economy, society, business, education, and public services across all dimensions. AI presents a major opportunity for Thailand to enhance productivity, create new industries, improve public services, and strengthen the country's long-term competitiveness.

However, as AI becomes more deeply embedded in people's lives, the key question is no longer only what AI can do, but how citizens, businesses, and the public sector can trust AI. Trust is the foundation that enables innovation to be adopted safely, responsibly, and sustainably. Thailand is now working to turn trust into a national advantage. The country ranks among the world's leading countries in several AI Governance dimensions, including 2nd in AI Social Acceptance, 5th in AI Development Inclusivity, 17th in AI Governance Environment, and 11th in AI Governance Effectiveness. These rankings reflect Thailand's progress in moving AI Governance from policy into real-world practice.

AIGW 2026 is therefore an important week that brings together activities across multiple dimensions to demonstrate Thailand's role in advancing AI Governance from global principles to real-world practice. A key milestone is the transition from Thailand's existing AI Governance Center (AIGC) towards the AI Governance Practice Center (AIGPC), a regional practice center for AI Ethics and AI Governance in Practice.

This marks an important step that enables Thailand not only to adopt international guidance, but also to develop tools, practical approaches, and lessons learned that fit the Thai context and can be shared with countries across the region. It also supports Thailand's ambition to become a co-shaper of AI Governance directions at the regional level.

The Minister further noted that this effort cannot be driven by any single organization alone. As opportunities often come with risks, advancing AI Governance requires collaboration among government, industry, academia, civil society, international organizations, and the public. This is the essence of this year's theme, "Connecting the Right Dots," which aims to connect principles with practice, global guidance with local context, innovation with responsibility, and technology with people.

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On the first day of the event, AIGW 2026 also welcomed global AI Governance expert Prof. Dr. Urs Gasser, Chairperson of the International Policy Advisory Panel (IPAP), AIGPC, who shared his perspectives in a keynote address titled "AI Governance Guardrails: Ensuring Safe and Responsible Innovation." His keynote highlighted the importance of mechanisms and guardrails that enable AI development to move forward safely and responsibly.

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This was followed by a keynote from Dr. Chaichana Mitrpant, Executive Director, Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), titled "Connecting the Right Dots of Ethical AI & Governance: ETDA's Role in AI Governance and Building AIGPC as a Regional Hub." The session provided insights into ETDA's role in advancing AI Governance and Thailand's efforts to develop AIGPC as a concrete regional hub for AI Ethics and Governance in Practice.

AIGW 2026 will run for five days, with each day focusing on a key theme. Some activities are being held for the first time in Thailand.

* Day 1 | 29 June: The event opens with the AIGPC Annual Conference, setting the overall direction for connecting global AI Governance principles with real-world implementation, as well as the future direction of AIGPC.
* Day 2 | 30 June: The event moves from principles to tools through the Thailand Banking AI Red Team Challenge 2026, a pilot initiative to test AI safety in the financial and banking sector, together with the launch of the AI Ethical Impact Assessment Playbook & Toolkits, designed to help organizations systematically assess AI impacts, risks, and readiness before deployment.
* Day 3 | 1 July: The focus shifts to building awareness and safe AI use in education through Building AI Awareness and Safe Use in Education, along with hands-on workshops by leading technology organizations.
* Day 4 | 2 July: The event connects AI with law, responsibility, and real-world applications through the theme AI Regulation, Responsibility, and Real-World Use Cases, covering AI regulation, intellectual property, digital trade, and AI for Justice.
* Day 5 | 3 July: The week concludes with Thailand's first major testing platform, Red Teaming for Robust and Responsible AI, focusing on testing, identifying vulnerabilities, and designing safeguards to ensure AI systems are safe, auditable, and trustworthy before real-world deployment.

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One of the key goals of AIGW 2026 is to demonstrate Thailand's potential to advance AI Governance from principles to practice through three concrete mechanisms. The first is the development of AIGPC as a source of knowledge, information, and expertise for organizations in Thailand and across the region. The second is the launch of the AI EIA Playbook & Toolkits, which will serve as practical tools to assess impacts, risks, and readiness before AI adoption. The third is Thailand's first AI Red Teaming initiative, a pilot effort to test AI systems before real-world deployment.

AI Governance Week 2026 (AIGW 2026) is held from 29 June to 3 July 2026, with support from key partners including Google, Huawei, AWS, Tilleke & Gibbins, BOTNOI, the Court of Justice, the Administrative Court, NECTEC, TB-CERT, the Federation of Thai SMEs (MSME), Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, and others.

For more information, please visit https://aigw-thailand.com/ or follow ETDA Thailand on Facebook [https://web.facebook.com/ETDA.Thailand].

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This release was published on openPR.