At least one-third of chief executive officers in Thailand expects the coronavirus outbreak to be contained within the second quarter of 2020.
However, more than half expressed their lack of confidence in the government’s measures, according to a survey published on Monday by Krungthep Thurakit newspaper.
With a sample size of 200 CEOs working in large companies for various industries in Thailand, including manufacturing, agriculture, real estate, exports, financial, retail and IT, the results show that 38 per cent of them expect the outbreak to be contained within the second quarter.
The view reflects the current optimism in the country as the rate of coronavirus infections have dropped down to single-digits for the past week. The latest update reported two new coronavirus cases on Monday with one fatality, bringing the total to 3,042 confirmed cases and 57 fatalities.
On the other hand, 32.2 per cent said that the pandemic will last until the third economic quarter, while 12.1 per cent do not expect to see the light at the end of the tunnel until the fourth quarter.
However, 17.6 per cent believe that it is still hard to assess the situation right now.
With that in mind, 32.6 per cent of CEOs have already chosen to cut costs to stay afloat so far while 25.4 per cent said they were trying to maintain liquidity as much as possible. About 11.9 per cent were looking for new markets to cope with the drop in demand.
The majority of the CEOs (43.7 per cent) said a quarter of their businesses have been affected by the outbreak while 20.1 per cent said that half of their businesses have been affected.
Nevertheless, 30.7 per cent of the CEOs said only 10 per cent of their businesses have been affected by the outbreak while 5.5 per cent have not been affected by the outbreak at all.
Dissatisfaction
A significant drop in both domestic and external demands due to the outbreak’s impact on Thailand and global economy led 55 per cent of the CEOs to say that their business’s growth will be lower than expected in 2020.
On the other hand, 29.8 per cent said growth should be stable in 2020 while 15.2 per cent believed that growth will remain on the same trajectory as 2019.
With Thailand named as one of the success stories in domestic containment of the virus, 46.7 per cent of CEOs are confident in government measures.
In contrast, more than half (53 per cent) also said that they have no confidence in the measures the government introduced to cope with the outbreak. The survey did not specify whether they were unhappy with the containment measures or economic measures.
Recommendations
For recommendations, some CEOs proposed the government make further tax cuts, lower the interest rate even though it is already at a historic low of 0.5 per cent, more soft-loans, and promote domestic consumption and tourism via job creation and confidence building.
As for the recommendations to prevent a further outbreak in the country, some CEOs said the government should continue to be vigilant with its lockdown measures.
They want the government to continue to arrest people and punish businesses that have violated lockdown measures in order to prevent the country from entering phase three of the outbreak.
Phase three generally refers to rapid and widespread human-to-human transmission or community-level outbreaks without a history of contact or exposure to infected inbound persons from another country.
Some CEOs showed their support for the continuation of inbound travel restriction measures including the 14-day mandatory quarantine period.
They also urged the government to provide a budget to help private companies that need to clean public and crowded areas, such as department stores and public transportation providers.
Many of the CEOs want to see Thailand’s participation in the production of medicine and vaccines to use against the coronavirus. They want all tests to be free for the public while facemasks should be given to people that need them the most, such as public healthcare workers.
