Hundreds of anxious residents in northern provinces flock to local hospitals for Covid-19 tests following several recent cases of Coronavirus
PHOTO: INN News
Northern Thailand –
Hundreds of local people who visited entertainment venues in Phichit province have flocked to local hospitals yesterday, December 2, to seek Covid-19 tests after an official announcement regarding an infected illegal returnee who went to the same places during the same period.
Approximately 200 visitors from the Bird Bar and Crocodile Rock Pub in Mueang district rushed to the hospital for the tests as they claimed that they went to the places from November 28th to 30th, the same period as when a Phichit returnee who had illegally sneaked back from Tachileik border of Myanmar with Covid-19 had been.
PHOTO: INN News
Both entertainment venues were closed for three days following the order of Phichit Governor Rangsan Tancharoen. Many schools were also closed until next Monday as some of the students had reportedly visited the venues during the same period as the infected returnee. The Governor stressed that the bar and schools had done nothing wrong in response to some on social media who were upset.
Other community activities and social gatherings in department stores, restaurants, and other entertainment venues were available but under a strict New Normal policy and other health regulations.
PHOTO: Chiang Mai News
Similar situations also occurred in Chiang Mai as about 100 anxious residents rushed to public and private hospitals since December 1st to seek Covid-19 tests. However, the hospitals only provided free tests to high- and low-risk groups of people who had a travel history similar to infected returnees.
Meanwhile, the Chiang Mai deputy governor, Weeraphan Dee-on, reassured the public not to panic as the authorities are closely monitoring the disease transmission and examining people in the risk groups.
"The reoccurrence of the Covid-19 in the country has not yet affected the tourism industry in Chiang Mai. Private tourism sectors also positively believe that the province is still safe. Upcoming events and activities will not be postponed and domestic tourists do not have to be quarantined but they are advised to abide by New Normal restrictions and health regulation strictly." the deputy governor stresse
Doctor warns of possible second wave of COVID-19 spread by illegal returnees
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Associate Professor Dr. Thira Woratanarat, of the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University, said today that infected illegal Thai returnees, from Myanmar's Thachilek township, pose a high risk of a second wave of infections in Thailand and urged officials to be especially vigilant over for the next two weeks.
He also urged the public not to lower their guard, because it is impossible to know whether any of the illegal returnees are infected until they visit doctors with symptoms.
Dr. Thira said some of the illegal returnees travelled to several places, visited entertainment venues and shared cigarettes and drinks with their friends, activities which risk transmission of the disease.
Forty-eight Thai women working at a hotel in Myanmar's Thachilek border township want to return to Thailand, but through the Second Friendship Bridge border checkpoint, said Dr. Tossathep Boonthong, provincial health chief of Chiang Rai province, today (Thursday).
Thai officials have coordinated with their Myanmar counterparts, through the Thai-Myanmar Border Committee, to facilitate the orderly return to Thailand of the Thai workers after several of them snuck across the border, ten of whom were infected with COVID-19, causing alarm among Thai health officials that some of them could become "super spreaders".
Dr. Tossathep said that the returnees will not face any charges for crossing borders illegally, but they will be properly screened and placed in local quarantine for 14 days after their return.
According to management of the 1G1 Hotel in Thachilek, about 180 Thai women worked at the hotel, mostly in the karaoke bar.
Two Royal mobile COVID-19 testing labs have been deployed in Chiang Rai. One is at the Second Friendship Bridge and the other in Baan Pa Moed in Mae Sai district, near a hotel in which many illegal Thai returnees take temporary refuge, before travelling further inland. Each lab can test up to 300 people a day.
Meanwhile, troop reinforcements from the Pa Muang Task Force have been deployed along the natural borderline with Myanmar, to stem the flow of illegal migrants looking for work in Thailand or escaping the COVID-19 outbreak in Thachilek.
The CCSA, meanwhile, recorded 13 new COVID-19 cases in Thailand, including six Thais who snuck across the natural border from Thachilek.
The seven other new cases are an Indian from India, a Thai woman returning from the US and another arriving from Mexico, an Egyptian woman arriving from Sweden, a Pakistani from Pakistan and two Thai women arriving from the Netherlands.
Cumulative infections in Thailand, to date, are 4,039, with 3,832 recoveries.
New Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith appeared, this week, to signal that the government was intent on moving the emphasis of the kingdoms' economy away from the model of past decades, based on exports and tourism, towards the goal of the previous junta government which outlined a plan to create a higher-value economy in S-Curve, industries of the future.
The Thai Finance Minister has suggested that it could take up to four years for Thailand to regain the level of tourism it saw in 2019 and has alluded to a reset. The minister said that the structure of Thailand's economy needs to change to address the current situation. It comes after the Bank of Thailand, at its last Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Wednesday, identified the reopening of the country to foreign tourists as a priority to make sure economic recovery does not stall. It warned of a potential threat to the financial system due to growing levels of household debt and non-performing loans.
Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith took up the role on October 1st. This has coincided with an uptick in the economy in the third quarter. However, there is rising concern at growing household debt levels and the continued closure of the kingdom to foreign tourism. This week, Mr Arkhom said that Thailand must restructure its economy with an emphasis on new, S-Curve industries and predicted that tourism will not attain 2019 levels for four years until the end of 2024.
Thailand's Finance Minister, the third to hold the position this year, has said that the country's virtually dormant foreign tourism industry will take four years to recover to 2019 levels.
He explained, this week, harkening back to a key policy platform of the junta government from 2014 to 2019, that Thailand must move towards S-Curve industries identified as critical to the Thai government's Thailand 4.0 programme
Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith predicted that the kingdom will see up to 8 million foreign tourists in 2021. Last week, Krungrsi Bank predicted a figure of 4 million visitors when it set a growth forecast of between 2.5% and 3% for the economy next year.
Minister predicts over 4% growth for 2021
The minister is more optimistic and predicted a growth rate of 4% to 4.5% but is cautious about prospects for a full recovery in the tourist sector.
Last week, the Governor of the Tourism Authority indicated that the number of foreign tourists may return to normal by 2022.
The minister has projected 16 million foreign tourists for the year after next, or 2022, which would still be only 40% of the record year, seen last year.
Based on a current arrival level of just over 1,200 tourists a month complying with current, exceedingly demanding entry criteria, it is unlikely that Thailand will achieve anything like normal tourism levels until well into next year and this year's 2020 outcome will record approximately 6.7 million visitors, nearly all who arrived in the first three months.
Four years to regain Thailand's lost momentum in tourism, cut off this year with flight bans
The Finance Minister is predicting that it will be 2023 before anything like normal mass tourism levels will be seen again in Thailand with a projection of 32 million visitors and a further year to attain or surpass the record performance seen in 2019 when 39.8 million visitors flew in. This would be in 2024.
At the end of March this year, Thailand had seen encouraging tourism numbers at the start of the year in what looked like the beginning of another record year for 2020 before the government, first of all, imposed onerous restrictions and then shut the door to all incoming passengers and the country's airspace after an insurrection of travellers returning home who refused to comply with emergency quarantine provisions.
Since then, a small trickle of foreigners has been allowed to enter under rigorous and expensive conditions.
Minister resurrects blueprint of the junta government to transform the structural basis of the economy
The Finance Minister, Mr Arkhom, is a former civil servant who was appointed to his current role on the 1st October. He served nearly four years as Minister of Transport in the junta led government of Prayut Chan ocha from the 19th August 2015 to the 10th July 2019.
In his statement dealing with the economy and the outlook for foreign tourism this week, the minister emphasised that the goal of the current government is to shift Thailand's economy towards new business sectors such as digital technology, robotics and new, green wave ventures.
New tax on online sales activity in 2021
Minister Arkhom also pointed to the introduction of an online tax which is currently making its way through parliament and foresees that this will be implemented sometime in 2021. It will place indirect taxes on the services provided by large technology companies in Thailand at the source.
Concern at the ongoing expansion of the mass tourism sector had been flagged by agencies such as the World Bank, which warned in 2018, of the environmental impact of the rapid rise in visitor numbers entering the country which continued up to the end of 2019.
Tourism industry doubled in value in four hectic years from 2015 to 2019 with 33% more visitors
Thailand's tourism market effectively doubled, in value terms, between 2015 and 2019 with a corresponding 33% gain in visitor numbers.
The kingdom's economy, up to this crisis, had been dependent on both tourism and exports for 70% of its GDP.
Some economic thinkers had long advised the government to attempt to transform the country into a higher-income economy based on modern technology.
Visiting New York, last year in September, the Thai Prime Minister, Prayut Chan ocha, told a business audience that Thailand aimed to become a developed and high-income economy by 2036.
Incoming junta government in 2014 forged plans to pivot the economy away from tourism which was behind 20% of the country's GDP up to this year
This had been seen as a pivot of the incoming junta government in 2014 when many in that cabinet, which was formed by 2015, a year later, spoke of a plan to wean the Thai economy off tourism which had accounted, in direct terms, for approximately 11.8% of GDP but this figure rises substantially to well over 20% when indirect financial benefits and employment in such sectors as construction, retail and entertainment are taken into account.
It should also be borne in mind, that a large segment of the Thai economy is informal, particularly related to the tourism sector as it existed up to this year.
The extraordinarily successful performance of the tourism industry, driven by foreign tourism, effectively repudiated government talk of weaning the country off it.
The consistent flow of money into the kingdom and the growing ability of the industry to divert funds into new secondary cities and regions as it expanded, in the four years to 2019, even surprised many of the modernisers.
Thailand had, up to this year, one of the out successful tourism industries in the world linked with the emergence of the kingdom as a world transport hub.
The kingdom had an unrivalled, loyal and repeat customer base extending to up 7 million visitors who kept coming back from all parts of the globe.
Tourism funnels money where it is needed
Tourism, as an industry, is the most effective sector at injecting money into the economy.
In Thailand's case, this money disproportionately reached those working in the informal sector who have been the biggest casualty of the country's decision to close its borders to protect the broad population from the virus.
Economists also point to the dynamic impact tourism has on private investment and creating jobs.
The Thai economy, this year, has been boosted in the third quarter by a renascent performance in the export sector led by a massive surge in exports to the United States.
Concern for the economy in the fourth quarter and beginning of 2021 as the High Season loss impacts
There is concern about the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 due to the impact of the second wave of the virus in the US, Europe and the UK. The strengthening baht is also worrisome.
The Bank of Thailand, this week, expressed concern for the economy and particularly the impact of the loss of foreign tourism.
The base figure for last year, for the next two quarters, includes a very successful High Season for tourism up to the Covid 19 disruption at the end of March 2020.
Bank of Thailand deeply concerned about rising levels of non-performing loans and an ongoing imbalance of liquidity in the country's financial system
The Thai central bank, in the last 48 hours, highlighted rising household debt which is projected to zoom to 90% of GDP by the end of the year from the end of March this year. It confirmed that the figure had already reached 84% at the end of June.
The Bank of Thailand has also identified the banking system, now itself, as a source of concern with rising levels of non-performing loans and what it has termed an imbalance of liquidity within the system.
Monetary Policy Committee this week indicated a potential for financial instability if the recovery stalls
The bank at its Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Wednesday, also warned that a delayed and impeded recovery combined with rising household debt and non-performing loans in tandem may challenge financial stability despite the generous reserve provisions that had been made by banks, at the outset of this unprecedented crisis.
It particularly highlighted the need to reopen the country to foreign tourism and the need to address or resolve the ongoing political strife which could undermine both consumer and investor confidence.
Thailand's Covid-19 vaccination programme will begin in May 2021, according to the Department of Disease Control (DDC)'s action plan revealed on Thursday.
The country last week signed a Bt6-billion deal to buy 26 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine to immunise 13 million people.
The vaccine will first have to pass safety and quality checks applied by the Thai Food and Drug Administration and Department of Medical Sciences under the Public Health Ministry, said DDC director-general Opas Karnkawinpong.
Secondly, the DDC will prepare vaccination centres at more than 10,000 subdistrict health promotion hospitals nationwide to reach communities quickly and prevent crowding in large hospitals. A cold-chain transport system to maintain vaccine quality is now being prepared, and officials are being trained for the mass vaccination programme. The first to be called for registration will be medical staff, young children, the elderly, and vulnerable groups.
Local health authorities will then summon registered participants for vaccination at health promotion hospitals or mobile health units.
The vaccinations will begin in May 2021, according the DDC action plan.
A programme to monitor any adverse side effects will run from July until January 2022.
A public information campaign will also explain that groups with high natural immunity don't need to be vaccinated right away.
Opas confirmed that vaccination will be provided free of charge by the government. Private hospitals can source their own vaccine supply, he added.
Entertainment venues carry the risk of Covid-19 transmissions, Dr Yong Poovorawan, an expert virologist at Chulalongkorn University, warned in a Facebook post on Thursday.
He said super-spreader events in entertainment venues had occurred in South Korea, Japan, Western countries and even Thailand.
"Entertainment venues are noisy places with confined spaces, so it is not easy to undertake measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, such as maintaining a distance from others and even wearing a face mask," he pointed out.
Dr Yong said Thailand took about two months to contain the spread in entertainment venues and a boxing stadium during the Covid-19 outbreak earlier this year.
"Therefore, we would like to ask everyone to be careful so that this does not become an issue again," he added.
Entertainment venues carry the risk of Covid-19 transmissions, Dr Yong Poovorawan, an expert virologist at Chulalongkorn University, warned in a Facebook post on Thursday.
He said super-spreader events in entertainment venues had occurred in South Korea, Japan, Western countries and even Thailand.
"Entertainment venues are noisy places with confined spaces, so it is not easy to undertake measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, such as maintaining a distance from others and even wearing a face mask," he pointed out.
Dr Yong said Thailand took about two months to contain the spread in entertainment venues and a boxing stadium during the Covid-19 outbreak earlier this year.
"Therefore, we would like to ask everyone to be careful so that this does not become an issue again," he added.
Thailand government continues with the needless MISERY until 2022
Thailand's tourism officials have ended hopes of an economic revival by confirming travel restrictions will remain in place until mid 2021, at the earliest.
Beach tourism is now a thing of the past in Thailand
Recently tourism lobby groups, in the shape of the Thai Hotel Association and the Thailand Travel Agents Association, have been demanding that the Thai government drops its mandatory quarantine provisions.
They also called for established travel corridors with provinces in China and low-risk nations including Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan.
However, minster for sports and tourism Pipat Ratchakitprakan has this week refused to consider it, ending all hopes of a busy Christmas and New Year travel season.
'The country will continue being open to businessmen, technical experts, high level workers and those in the medical field for now. 14 day quarantine will continue for now with many countries still in the grip of the pandemic,' the minister blabbered incoherently.
He then added that the country is likely to remain closed for 'normal' tourists until the middle of next year at the earliest. (continued below)
Vaccinated tourists may allowed to enter by mid-2021
Meanwhile, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is writing off 2021 and making its own plans for full recovery in 2022.
TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn said that next year's tourism outlook was "difficult to predict" and, thus, the organization has launched a 'Project Phoenix.'
This has childishly been named in the hope that Thailand will 'rise from the ashes' of the pandemic to generate up to 2.5 trillion baht ($83 billion) in tourism revenue in 2022, 83 per cent of 2019's income.
Vaccinated tourists may be allowed to return to Thailand in the middle of next year without having to undergo quarantine.
That should see the industry start to recover in the third quarter, driven by European tourists, he hoped.
An investigation into corruption at Thai Airways International (THAI), which started in August, has revealed that 20 people were involved in possible graft that resulted in massive losses to the airline, said Pol Lt-General Saroj Nimjaroen, deputy head of the commission probing internal administration at THAI.
The commission will meet with the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) on December 14 to provide additional information regarding the investigation into the possible corruption, he said.
"We had earlier submitted investigation details to Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, the Finance Ministry, which is THAI's major shareholder, and the NACC president, who subsequently contacted Deputy Transport Minister Thaworn Senneam to submit additional documents relating to the investigation," Saroj said.
"The investigation has so far revealed that there are 20 persons who were involved in corruption at THAI in six different aspects. For example, the commission found that the mechanics department had disbursed more than Bt6 million to 567 staff as overtime pay for 1,500 hours [of extra work] per year," he said. "This will require further investigation into the reason and necessity of disbursing such a large amount as overtime pay."
Saroj also said that in the meeting with the NACC on December 14, he would submit the list of persons suspected of being involved in corruption at THAI, as well as a record of complaints that have been filed in court or at related agencies regarding the suspected misconduct of the 20.
UD har tidigare fattat beslut om avrådan från icke nödvändiga resor till övriga länder utanför EU/EES/Schengenområdet till och med den 31 januari 2021. Detta gäller ju också Avrådan för resor till Thailand pgr av covid-19
Det är viktigt att tänka på att när man reser till områden som UD avråder från så gäller antagligen inte din försäkring. Du måste kolla detta själv innan du reser.
UD kan ha svårt ha hjälpa dig och kan även säga nej till att hjälpa dig att komma hem så länge avrådan för resor till Thailand gäller.
Detta gäller även transit resor så om du reser genom Thailand till ett annat land måste du kontakt ditt försäkrings bolag om detta.
Ambassaden i Bangkok är fortfarande öppen men kan ha begränsningar i sina öppet tider.
Mer information om avrådan för resor till Thailand hittar ni på Svenska UD.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha smiles to reporters as he leaves a meeting on Covid-19 at Government House on Wednesday. (Photo: Pornprom Satrabhaya)
Prime Minister Prayut has been cleared by the Constitutional Court of any wrongdoing in staying in army housing while being the prime minister.
His occupancy was allowed under a 2005 army regulation, which lets army chiefs stay on base after they retire if they continue to serve the country well, according to the unanimous ruling read out at the court in Bangkok on Wednesday afternoon.
The court said the regulation had come into effect before Gen Prayut was the army chief, and other former army commanders have also received the same benefits.
The court said Gen Prayut served the country well as army chief, and the army regulation allowed its former commanders to use such houses, and subsidised utility bills.
"When he became prime minister on Aug 24, 2014, the complainee [Gen Prayut] was also the army chief in active duty. He was therefore qualified to stay in the house in his capacity as the army chief. When he retired on Sept 30, 2014, he was still qualified to stay as a former army chief. A prime minister who had not been army chief could not have stayed at the house," the court said in its ruling.
Being a prime minister is an important position and security for him and his family is important. The state must provide appropriate security and an accommodation that is safe and offers privacy enables him to perform his duties for public benefits. It is therefore necessary to prepare accommodation for the country's leader when Baan Phitsanulok is not ready, the court said.
The free utilities also do not constitute a conflict of interest since they are part of the welfare that comes with the housing.
For these reasons, the court ruled 9-0 the premiership of Gen Prayut does not terminate and he did not seriously violate the code of ethics.
Background
Gen Prayut has stayed at the military house at the 1st Infantry Regiment on Phahon Yothin Road in Bangkok since shortly after he became army commander-in-chief in 2010.
An on-base guest house is free for qualified personnel and the army also subsidises utility and maintenance bills for the housing.
It has also been questioned whether Gen Prayut is entitled to household services provided by enlisted men, and if so, how many.
According to the army's housing regulations, "a person who is no longer on active duty, regardless of the cause, must move from a military house within 180 days from the date he learns about such an order".
In Gen Prayut's case, the clock started ticking from Sept 30, 2014, when he retired.
Based on this regulation, Gen Prayut has not been qualified for such welfare benefits since April 1, 2015. However, the 2005 regulation allows former army chiefs to use a house if they continue to serve the country.
At least two other former army chiefs have been staying on the same base. Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has been living at a foundation located there for 15 years, and Interior Minister Gen Anupong Paochinda has been staying in another guest house there for 11 years.
The case against the prime minister was raised shortly after the no-confidence debate early this year.
In one of its accusations during the debate, Pheu Thai, the largest opposition party, accused him of violating the 2017 constitution.
Sections 184(3) and 186 of the 2017 charter prohibit MPs, senators, cabinet ministers, including prime ministers, from accepting money or other benefits from a government agency, state agency or state enterprise in excess of what that agency gives to others in its normal operations.
Pheu Thai also accused Gen Prayut of breaching the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) law, which prohibits a state official from accepting assets or benefits worth more than 3,000 baht.
After the debate, the party filed a complaint against Gen Prayut through the House speaker in March and the Constitutional Court accepted it for deliberation in June.
Prayut's defence
Gen Prayut admitted to the court in writing that he had stayed at a military house instead of his own house or Baan Phitsanulok, the official prime minister's residence.
He explained that he had not moved to Phitsanulok House, the prime minister's official residence, because it was under repair and maintenance. Besides, his security team advised him to stay at the military house, which they said offered better security.
Army's explanation
Former army chief Gen Apirat Kongsompon submitted an explained in writing to the Constitutional Court shortly after the court accepted the case for consideration. In his letter, he said Gen Prayut stayed at a guest house on base, not at a general military house, and since he had served the country well, he was qualified to stay on under the army's regulations.
According to Gen Apirat, military housing consisted of general housing for officers based on their positions and guest houses for the top brass such as generals, the "five army tigers" (deputy chief, two assistant chiefs and chief-of-staff), as well as ex-army chiefs and former five army tigers.
Gen Narongphan Jitkaewtae, the incumbent army chief, told the court that under army regulations, subsidies for electricity, water supply and other accommodation expenses were at the discretion of the army.
If the court had not ruled in his favour, Gen Prayut would have had to vacate the office of prime minister, resulting in all cabinet ministers losing their jobs. They would have remained on as a caretaker government until a new government was formed.
If the court had ruled he seriously violated the code of ethics, he would also have been banned from politics for two years.
A House and Senate vote would have chosen the 30th prime minister from the remaining candidates on the lists submitted by parties before the 2019 general election - Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan (Pheu Thai), Chadchart Sittipunt (Pheu Thai), Chaikasem Nitisiri (Pheu Thai), Abhisit Vejjajiva (Democrat) and Anutin Charnvirakul (Bhumjaithai).
Timeline
2005 Army regulations come into effect, allowing former army chiefs who continue to serve the country well to stay in military guest houses. Gen Prawit Wongsuwon was army chief at the time.
2010 Army regulations requiring retired officers to vacate military housing within 180 days comes into effect. Gen Anupong Paochinda was army chief at the time.
Oct 1, 2010 Gen Prayut becomes army commander. He moved to the guest house on base in 2012.
Sept 30, 2014 Gen Prayut retires as army commander. He continues to stay in the house.
2017 New constitution comes into effect. Sections 184(3) and 186 prohibits MP, senators and ministers (including prime ministers) from accepting benefits from a state agency apart from "what other people receive from it in its normal operations".
February 2020 Opposition raises the issue at the no-confidence debate.
March 2020 Pheu Thai MPs file complaint against Gen Prayut for violating Section 184 of the charter, Section 128 of the NAAC law prohibiting a state official from accepting other benefits worth more than 3,000 baht and 2010 code of ethics for politicians.
June 11, 2020 Constitution Court accepts the case for deliberation.
Dec 2, 2020 Constitutional Court clears Gen Prayut of the accusations.
Thailand hikes price of 5-year visa as foreigners seek COVID haven
Residency program aims for profit in 2 years on surge of Chinese applicants
BANGKOK -- Thailand plans to raise the price of its bestselling five-year residency permit by 20% in January, after the program dubbed "elite" visas drew record new memberships this year as people sought to stay in the largely coronavirus-free country.
Starting Jan. 1, the Easy Access -- one of the nine elite-visa packages -- will be offered for 600,000 baht ($19,850), up from the current 500,000 baht, according to Thailand Privilege Card, the operator of the elite visas.
Thailand Privilege Card, a company under the Tourism Authority of Thailand, added 2,674 members during its fiscal 2020 ended in September, a 24.8% increase. This brought in fees of 1.6 billion baht, or nearly $53 million. Over 60% of the new members were Easy Access holders.
Easy Access enjoyed great demand this year, for its cheaper price and the privilege of staying in Thailand for an uninterrupted five years. Buyers can renew or upgrade to longer-term visas when their five years are up, said Bobby He, a Bangkok-based agent selling elite visas to Chinese.
Thailand Privilege Card had a cumulative loss of 555 million baht as of fiscal 2019. The price increase for the cash cow package comes as the company aims to reach a profit within two years.
The company attributed the price hike to "higher operating costs," without elaboration. It said prices of the other types of elite visas will not change.
"It's no surprise that the authorities want to raise the price of Easy Access," said He, a Chinese native who holds a 20-year, 1 million baht elite visa.
Company President Somchai Soongswang attributed the record membership to Thailand's containment of COVID-19. He told Nikkei Asia that many tourists stuck in Thailand amid closed borders wanted to stay longer in the country, and those abroad wished to come here for a "pandemic-free" living environment.
The Southeast Asian country has logged slightly over 4,000 COVID-19 cases, compared with over 65,500 in neighboring Malaysia and 58,000 in Singapore.
As of Sept. 30, there were more than 11,100 elite visa members in total. The majority were mainland Chinese, Japanese, South Koreans, Britons and Americans.
The company aims to attract at least 2,700 new members for fiscal 2021, another record if achieved, according to people familiar with the plans.
Toward that end, Thailand Privilege Card is set to unveil its 10th elite visa package, the "Flexible One," to target deep-pocketed condo buyers by the first quarter of 2021.
Individuals who buy one or several units worth 10 million baht are expected to get a five-year residency visa for free, or at a discount. This move comes as Thailand's property market has slid into a black hole amid sluggish spending.
As of the first week of November, Thai authorities had given approval for nearly 1,000 elite visa holders abroad to enter the country. About 200 have since arrived. Somchai said 60% of applicants came from abroad in September, doubling from March, showing their confidence in Thailand's ability to control COVID-19.
Elite visas were rolled out in 2003 to target high net worth individuals who wanted to stay in the country "for life" by paying a one-time fee of 1 million baht. It came with privileges such as unlimited access to golf courses and high-end spas, leading to excessive use that incurred losses to the company.
The program was halted in 2008 and reintroduced in 2014 with various visa packages at different price points. The nine current packages offer residency of five, 10 or 20 years. Prices range from 500,000 baht to 2 million baht.
