The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a serious labour shortage in factories, and hard hit Thailand’s exports, its main economic engine, according to CEOs surveyed by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
Bangkok (VNA) - The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a serious labourshortage in factories, and hard hit Thailand’s exports, its main economicengine, according to CEOs surveyed by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
The FTI, which surveyed 166 executives from 45 industrygroups and 75 provincial industry councils on the topic of managing labourproblems during the pandemic, found that the employment rate during the crisisremains about same as before the crisis, at around 53.6 percent.
However, labour shortages are currently affecting 45.2 percentof factories, resulting in a 30 percent drop in production capacity.
Capacity has reduced by 30-50 percent in 20.5 percent offactories and more than 50 percent in 7.8 percent of factories.
Meanwhile, the Thai National Shippers' Council (TNSC) said thatThai exports could fall by as much as 300 billion baht (9 billion USD) betweenAugust and December if the number of industrial factories hit by the pandemicdoubles.
Chaichan Chareonsuk, TNSC chairman, stated exporters areconcerned about their prospects after COVID-19 infections have spread to atleast 1,500 factories.
Chaichan predicted that overall Thai exports could beexpected to grow only 7 percent this year.
In the first half of this year, Thai exports grew by 15.5percent to 132 billion USD, while imports rose by 26.2 percent to 130 billionUSD, resulting in a trade surplus of 2.44 billion USD.
The country has to date recorded 672,385 COVID-19infections, after 20,200 new cases was logged on August 4./.
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Pichai said the trade talks with the US are important and need to move forward professionally, without regard for any political changes in Thailand, believing that Thailand has clear principles, guidelines and procedures in place.
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Illustrative image (Photo: Internet) 
