SINGAPORE – According to its finance minister, Thailand will receive its first vaccine next month.
For a start, about 100,000 doses will arrive, Arkhom Termpittayapaisith told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.
“The first vaccines are coming to Thailand next month, the first lot,” he said, adding that Thai firm Siam Bioscience will work with pharmaceutical company British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca to develop vaccines to make them available to both Thailand and other countries.
He spoke to CNBC as part of the coverage of the Davos Agenda of the World Economic Forum.
Thailand launched its vaccination on February 14 and aims to vaccinate 19 million people in the first phase, its prime minister said on Wednesday, according to a Reuters report.
The Southeast Asian nation has the report said that 26 million doses of AstraZeneca are manufactured by Siam Bioscience and 2 million doses of the Chinese Sinovac. It also reserved 35 million doses of AstraZeneca, he added.
Pandemic hits tourism
Termpittayapaisith also said that tourism is expected to recover by the end of the year, rather than mid-year as predicted earlier. The Thai economy relies heavily on tourism for growth, but foreign tourist arrivals came to a near halt during the pandemic.
Tourism revenues fell 66% in the first six months of 2020 to 6.69 million as countries around the world applied closures and travel restrictions due to the pandemic.
By comparison, Thailand has a record 39.8 million tourists in all of 2019. According to the report, tourist spending accounted for about 11% of Thai GDP that year.
Commuters with face masks are waiting for 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 … promotes more spending on the grassroots economy,” Termpittayapaisith said, pointing out that it compensates for the decline in revenue from international tourism.
Thailand on Thursday lowered its economic growth forecast for this year to 2.8%, from the 4.5% it had previously forecast. According to the central bank, the economy will contract by 6.6% in 2020.
According to Reuters, the country on Tuesday reported a record 959 cases, the highest daily rise since early January.
Thailand has one of the lowest cases in Southeast Asia. So far, 17,023 cases and 76 deaths have been reported, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.