The Labour Minister spoke about the Ministry of Labour’s Social Security Office, in partnering with the EXIM Bank and UOB to organize a credit program to promote employment and accelerate economic stimulus, supporting businesses to rapidly recover from the impact of Covid-19.
Labour Minister Mr. Suchart Chomklin reported that the government under the leadership of Prime Minister and Defense Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha, places great importance on driving the country forward accelerating economic recovery after the Covid-19 situation eases. The government has introduced the “Uniting Thailand to Build a Nation” policy, with the goal of joining forces from all sectors to come together to plan and determine the future of Thailand. From now on, the government will have to work with all sectors at all levels in society to get involved and have a greater role in helping to determine the future of the country, especially to accelerate the healing for people. This is especially relevant to impacted SMEs and people in various sectors who became unemployed. The policy also looks at creating incentives for businesses to continue employing employees within their businesses, allowing various business sectors to use this time to turn their organizations into a more efficient and competitive organization.
Mr. Suchart said that the Ministry of Labour’s Social Security Office initiated a credit program to promote employment. The Social Security Office will work with financial institutions to support low-interest loans with a credit limit of 30,000 million Baht to businesses. The project will enter into an agreement with participating commercial banks. The Social Security Office will support deposits for banks to lend at a fixed interest rate of 3% per annum in cases that have collateral, and a fixed interest of 5% per annum in cases of no collateral. Organizations will have to submit a loan and have registered with social security for at least 3 months and have maintained their employment status of insured persons for no less than 80 percent, for a period of 3 years. Companies will be able to submit for loans until December 31, 2020. The loans are divided into a credit line of 18,000 million Baht for companies with less than 50 employees, which can take out a loan not exceeding 5 million Baht. A credit limit of 9,000 million Baht will be available for companies with 51 – 200 employees, to take out a loan of up to 10 million Baht, and a credit limit of 3,000 million Baht for companies with 201 or more employees, whereby the loan limit is 15 million Baht.
“Companies that are interested can request a certificate of establishment status at the Social Security Office in Bangkok, in every area, province or branch to apply for a loan application with the banks participating in the program, namely the Export-Import Bank of Thailand (EXIM Bank) and the United Overseas Bank PCL. Loans will be available from now until December 31, 2020. The measure will help as working capital and to strengthen liquidity in the workplace, maintain employment conditions, promote working capital in the domestic economy, and support the overall economic development of the country as well,” concluded Mr. Suchart.
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Division of Public Relations
18 August 2020
