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Thailand: Conference touts pandemic policies
Policymakers must be forward-looking and prepare for unknown risks to safeguard the economy from challenges arising from the pandemic, says Finance Minister Predee Daochai.
Some key measures include extending remedies to vulnerable small businesses, making preparations ahead of the global economic recovery, promoting job creation in the private sector and preparing employment strategies for new graduates, said Mr Predee during a keynote speech at the “Thailand Focus 2020” virtual conference hosted by the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).
One of the key factors for handling economic challenges from the pandemic effectively is having strong policy coordination and a speedy response to help kick-start recovery, he said.
Big data and new technologies are highly efficient tools for helping vulnerable groups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), said Mr Predee.
The Finance Ministry has increased investment in large government and state enterprise projects and encouraged public-private partnerships to attract investment flows without constraining the fiscal budget, he said.
Public and private investments can increase national competitiveness, accelerate the economic recovery momentum and build up the country’s development and resilience, said Mr Predee.
“The key to sustained growth and economic recovery is to maintain fiscal discipline,” he said, insisting fiscal discipline must not be sacrificed for economic stimulus measures.
“The economy was projected to bottom out in the second quarter and should recover next year with 4-5% growth.”
In April, the cabinet approved 1.9 trillion baht in spending to help people and businesses affected by the crisis, including 600 billion baht for six-month cash giveaways and 500 billion baht in soft loans for SMEs.
The package, the third phase of the stimulus programme to shore up the economy, is backed by three executive decrees.
The first decree will allow the government to borrow 1 trillion baht from May this year to September next year.
Thailand may not be able to avoid a second or third wave of outbreaks, but the country stands ready to mitigate the negative impacts, said Dr Phusit Prakongsai, senior adviser on health promotion at the Public Health Ministry.
The need to unwind lockdown measures has led to more domestic travel and visits from certain foreigners, but without a vaccine, the chance of another domestic outbreak cannot be ruled out, said Dr Phusit.
The government’s management of the outbreak through the public health system has been efficient, allowing the economy to be less damaged than other countries experiencing persistent virus outbreaks, he said.
“A second wave of infections in Thailand depends on our policy to allow foreign visitors to return to this country,” said Dr Phusit.
He said any future outbreak in Thailand depends on the availability of a vaccine.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1975239/conference-touts-pandemic-policies