Disasters and emergency response

Thailand’s gross domestic products (GDP) shrank 6.1 per cent in 2020 due to widespread impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) said on Monday.Danucha Pichayanan, secretary-general of NESDC, said at a conference that GDP in the fourth quarter of ...

The government has rolled out a debt mediation programme for debtors having problems repaying debts in light of Covid-19.Deputy government spokeswoman Traisuree Taisaranakul said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has instructed various agencies to help debtors by preventing them from missing repayments and suffering from its ...

Thailand will begin clinical trials of a locally developed Covid-19 vaccine in March, making it the nation’s first inoculation programme to enter human trials.The programme, led by the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation, Mahidol University and the Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health, started its research mid-2020 ...

Thailand’s Outsourcing Employment Association revealed that even though the country has been hit by a Covid-19 outbreak twice, the demand for blue-collar workers has not fallen.Visuth Panthavuthiyanont, the association’s chairman, said on Tuesday that Thailand’s labour market was badly affected by the nationwide lockdown between ...

There have been concerns over data privacy in Thailand’s COVID-19 contact tracing app, as the country battles a new wave of infections.Despite these challenges, the authorities are trying to encourage more people to use the app, including via efforts to protect personal information.Since mid-December, Thailand ...

The Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) on Tuesday released satellite images showing a drastic drop in the water level of Mekong River this Sunday compared to images captured on January 3.“The water level of Mekong River has dropped considerably in the past month,” ...

In a bid to protect people, private organisations and local authorities are not allowed to purchase Covid-19 vaccines yet, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Tuesday.He explained that some vaccines have not undergone all phases of testing, and their efficiency and side effects are ...

Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith has expressed concerns over how a continuous drop in tax revenue collection will affect fiscal policy conduct in the long run.As the government aims to implement a long-term fiscal expansionary policy framework, the lower revenue collection as a percentage of GDP ...

The Finance Ministry is preparing to reconsider the eligibility criteria for receiving financial aid under the Rao Chana (We Win) scheme, which stipulates recipients should have a taxable income of no more than 300,000 baht per year.Approved in January, the We Win scheme aims to ...

Thailand is implementing the “seal and bubble” strategy to curb the spread of COVID-19 in factories in Samut Sakhon, the epicentre of the latest outbreak in the kingdom.Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy spokesman Natapanu Nopakun said for factories providing on-site accommodation for their workers, the ...