reply Thailand introduced measures to stabilize employment and boost consumption

The Thai government has approved a 23.5 billion baht ($1:31.3 baht) grant program aimed at helping graduates find jobs. According to the plan, from October 2020 to October 2021, the Thai government will provide a 50 percent wage subsidy to companies employing graduates from the class of 2019 and 2020 (including undergraduate, junior and technical secondary school graduates), benefiting an estimated 260,000 people.Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the funding plan is expected to create more job opportunities for graduates and boost the domestic economy. In addition, the government plans to hand out 3,000 baht, or 45 billion baht, to each of the 15 million eligible Thai residents to stimulate consumption and create jobs.Affected by the epidemic, Thailand's employment situation is not optimistic. Unemployment in Thailand rose to about 800, 000 in the second quarter from about 400, 000 in the first, the data showed. Experts estimate that if the economy does not improve over the next six months, two million jobs could be at risk.Thailand's Labour minister Suchas Chong Kin said it was vital to ensure jobs and people's incomes in these difficult times. To boost employment, the labor department plans to hold a nationwide job fair on September 26 and 28, which is expected to create 1 million jobs, including government civil servants and overseas workers.The National Economic and Social Development Commission has also proposed to the government to provide the Ministry of Agriculture with new projects worth about 30 billion baht to revitalize agriculture and create more jobs. The new project aims to raise rural incomes by developing agricultural technology, developing specialty agricultural products and promoting tourism, and solve the employment problem of nearly 70,000 graduates, said Danucha, vice chairman of the commission.The Cabinet also approved the Lanna Food and Tourism Festival, with a budget of 48 million baht, which will promote street food in Chiang Mai as a pilot project and gradually expand to other northern provinces to increase the income of local practitioners and farmers.The current outbreak has hit exports and tourism, pillars of the Thai economy. Gross domestic product contracted 12.2 per cent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the biggest drop since the Asian financial crisis of 1998. Thailand's finance ministry forecasts the economy will shrink 8.5 per cent this year. Prayuth argues that the government needs to create more pillar industries, introduce massive fiscal stimulus and diversify the economy to create more jobs and increase national income.