(No Like Yet)
Published on : Wednesday, July 22, 2020
The Thailand government is all prepared to introduce a 100 billion baht new soft loan plan that would help small-and medium-sized tourism enterprises and service sector badly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, the finance minister explained on Monday.
This loan will provide better relaxed conditions than the central bank’s 500-billion baht soft loan scheme, Uttama Savanayana informed reporters.
To quote him, “These will reduce operators’ costs and give them liquidity to keep jobs. It should be released soon”.
The loans, to be provided by the Government Savings Bank, will track different relief measures for SMEs which the minister highlighted that it employs 80% of the total workforce of the country.
Even though Thailand has no cases on domestic transmissions for more than one month, the impacts of the pandemic have hit the economy worldwide in an extremely bad way, particularly tourism, with close down of borders, keeping visitors out and weakening international air travel demand set to slow its revival process.
As per the central bank, in 2020, the economy is predicted to contract by a record 8.1%, with foreign tourist numbers plummeting by 80%.
Alone to the retail vendors, some 20 billion baht of soft loans will be offered, Mr. Uttama said.
Tags: Thailand