SINGAPORE – Thailand will receive the first batch of vaccines next month and plans to start producing its own, according to its finance minister.
For starters, about 100,000 doses will arrive, Arkhom Termpittayapaisith told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.
“The first vaccines will arrive in Thailand next month, the first batch,” he said, adding that Thai firm Siam Bioscience will work with British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to develop vaccines to make it available to both Thailand and for other countries. .
He spoke to CNBC as part of the Davos Agenda coverage of the World Economic Forum.
Thailand will begin launching the vaccine on February 14 and aims to inoculate 19 million people in the first phase, its prime minister said on Wednesday, according to a Reuters report.
The Southeast Asian nation has it Siam Bioscience got 26 million doses of AstraZeneca and 2 million doses from China’s Sinovac, according to the report. It has also reserved 35 million doses of AstraZeneca, he added.
The pandemic hits tourism
Termpittayapaisith also said tourism is expected to recover by the end of the year, rather than the middle of the year, as predicted earlier. The Thai economy is heavily dependent on tourism for growth, but foreign tourist arrivals stopped almost completely during the pandemic.
Tourism arrivals fell 66% in the first six months of 2020 to 6.69 million, as countries around the world implemented blockages and travel restrictions due to the success of the pandemic.
In comparison, Thailand had a record 39.8 million tourists throughout 2019, according to Reuters. Tourism spending accounted for about 11% of Thai GDP that year, according to the report.
Travelers wearing masks are expecting a canal boat in Bangkok on March 2, 2020.
MLADEN ANTONOV | AFP | Getty Images
“We are also focused on domestic consumption, so you can see that the economic package … (is) promoting more spending in grassroots economy,” Termpittayapaisith said, adding that it aims to offset declining revenues. of international tourism.
Thailand on Thursday lowered its economic growth forecast for this year to 2.8%, from 4.5% previously forecast. According to its central bank, the economy is expected to contract by 6.6% in 2020.
The country reported a record 959 cases on Tuesday, the highest daily rise since early January as evidence rose, according to Reuters.
Thailand has one of the lowest reported cases in Southeast Asia. So far it has reported 17,023 cases and 76 deaths, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.