Bangkok –
The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) urged the government to revoke the “Test&Go” scheme to help revive the domestic economy and stop rising fuel prices.
FTI president Suphan Mongkolsuthee revealed yesterday, March 10th, that the Thai Industries Sentiment Index (TISI) for February had decreased to 86.7 from 88.0 in January as the spread of the Omicron variant had led to government restrictions of tourism and business activities. Local entrepreneurs had also faced the rise of production and high prices of ingredients.
The president suggested the government focus on the enhancement of the tourism atmosphere, initially by easing the tourism entry “Test&Go” scheme to facilitate the entry of foreign tourists and support the recovery of the Thai economy in the future.
Fully vaccinated travelers should only have to present proof of being vaccinated when entering the country and the government should provide a tracking system for monitoring the tourists throughout their visit to the country, according to the FTI suggestions. This tracking system, however, could be reached simply with current measures like Immigration using their passport system vs. burdens on a tourist.
The association also mentioned the necessaries of the public health’s preparation to cope with the Omicron spread such as storing enough medicine, arranging sufficient hospital beds and field hospitals for patients with severe conditions, improving the home isolation system, etc.
Regarding the significant rise of energy and oil prices, Suphan stated that the government should issue measures to control the prices, such as stopping rising fuel and gas prices and maintaining the price of Automatic Tariff Adjustment Mechanism (Ft), to prevent an increase of the production costs in the industrial sectors.
According to the FTI survey among 1,242 manufacturers in 45 industries in February, about 75.2 percent of them were concerned about the fuel costs, followed by 68.5 percent about the Covid-19 situation, 56.8 percent about the domestic economy, and 52.3 percent by the global economy.
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