Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul launched a convention fair to stimulate the economy, saying business travelers and quarantine facilities are keys to short-term survival during the coronavirus recession.
Speaking in Nonthaburi Sept. 2, Anutin said the government was implementing measures not only to continue controlling the coronavirus, but stimulate the economy, help people generate income and ensure public safety.
In his comments, delivered a day before the country reported its first locally transmitted case of Covid-19 in 100 days, he said Thailand “can no longer stay locked down with zero infections, no traveling and no oversea businesses because Thai people will not survive.”
He said the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau and the Ministry of Public Health developed a system to guarantee hygienic meetings and seminars, giving “MICE City” health certificates to meeting venues in Pattaya, Bangkok, Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai, Nakhon Ratchasima, Phuket and Songkhla.
Conditions of the certification include large meeting halls and social distancing. Organizations were encouraged to hold meetings and accommodate participants overnight there, he said.
Anutin said once foreigners are allowed to return, “Thailand will use its advantages to attract foreign tourists to host meetings and tours as rewards.”
He said meetings and seminars would help stimulate the national and local economy as money would be spent on the activities, and participants would also visit local tourist destinations.
The government already introduced three packages of measures to promote the organization of meetings for local people and planned four more packages to support foreigner seminars when the country welcomes them, he said.
Chiruit Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya, president of the TCEB, said the organization would propose to the government a “special journey program” to allow foreign business travelers to enter the country to host exhibitions.
The Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration already allows foreign exhibitors to enter in October and November for Thai trade shows.
Chiruit said the TCEB already is training staff to work as contact officers for small groups of foreigners to track their movements and ensure they don’t spread the virus.
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