Biotechnology company Moderna, under intense pressure to send more of its coronavirus vaccine to lower-income countries, announced Thursday it would build a manufacturing plant in Africa capable of producing 500 million doses of messenger RNA vaccines a year.

The government aims to raise the quality of living of some 14 million registered lower-income people by using state-owned banks to provide loans to them to create communities business, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said.