Thai parliament president Somsak Kiatsuranont announced good news to all the members of the parliament yesterday: all five hundred members will be getting an iPad. The government claims that this initiative is to boost the MPs’ productivity.
The MPs will all be getting a white iPad 4, which is equipped with a retina display, Wifi and cellular data support, and 64 GB of memory. This version of iPad went on sale in Thailand at the end of last year. The government bought the devices for 28,355 Baht ($905) apiece; not exactly a baragin considering the price in the Thai Apple store is actually cheaper at 26,500 Baht ($845). The MPs’ iPads also come with a case, headphones, an iPad pen, an additional charger, and two years of Apple care, making them worth a total of 37,680 Baht ($1,205). Overall, then, the government will spend roughtly 18,840,000 Baht ($601,725) on these iPads.
Some Thai press have been critical of this since the price is actually higher than market value. And of course, there are comments on how the government spends money. There are even critics of the small details; some have wondered, for the example, why the government needs to spend money on an extra charger for everyone.
Government supporters think that this is a good investment as we need to get our politicians up to date one the technology to be ready for the ASEAN Economic Community.
All the MPs will have to return the iPads to the government at the end of their terms, although since that won’t be for two years, the devices will be fairly outdated by then. In addition, people are still skeptical as this Thai government hasn’t yet reported success in giving tablets to all first graders under the One Tablet Per Child, which is a pretty similar campaign.
A former senator who spoke to Tech in Asia on background suggested that it’s a good idea to push MPs to access important documents and information using the new technology; however, the government should at least survey if any of them already have the device so it can save some money.
(Editing by Charlie Custer)
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