Chamber of Commerce suggests increasing vaccination rate before reopening the country
The Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC) has urged the government to increase vaccination rate against Covid-19 especially in second and third jabs before the planned reopening on November 1 using the help of private sector.
Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha announced on Monday that the country will be reopening next month, whereas tourists from initial 10 low-risk countries will be allowed to travel to Thailand without having to quarantine provided they are fully jabbed and test negative. The list will be expanded to cover more countries in the first week of December and then again in January 2022.
“Private entrepreneurs who have been serving as vaccination units outside the hospitals are ready to support the campaign to provide 2nd and 3rd jabs to as many people as possible,” said TCC chairman Sanan Angubolkul on Wednesday. “Furthermore, the government must push out Covid-free setting measures to help strengthen the confidence of foreign visitors in Thailand’s safety, such as providing free ATK testing periodically to detect new cluster cases before they escalate.”
TCC also proposed that the government uses the Digital Health Pass approach to increase the capacity in which we can welcome foreign visitors while creating positive travel experience. “More visitors mean faster economic recovery not only in the tourism industry, but in other related sectors as well,” he said. “To achieve this, Thailand needs systematic and effective disease control measures to make sure that new wave of infections will not happen.”
Sanan estimated that after the reopening, Thailand will be welcoming additional 100,000 foreign visitors per month, which will help contribute to the expansion of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021, but will still be in the range of previously estimated 0-1 per cent.
