The Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group is spending 100 million baht to build a factory to produce face masks to help combat Covid-19, CP's senior chairman Dhanin Chearavanont said.
Mr Dhanin said the CP conglomerate was setting up a factory that will have the capacity to produce about 3 million face masks a month. It should be up and running in five weeks, he added.
These masks will be supplied free of charge to hospitals and medical personnel battling the spread of the virus as well as to people who have limited access to masks.
The CP Group, with its expansive network of investments worldwide, will procure machines and source materials that meet hygienic standards for producing the masks.
"At CP, we consider it our duty to be manufacturing masks that can be distributed free of charge to our fellow Thais," he said. His company understood the difficult times the country was facing and he believes other businesses also feel the same.
The factory will continue operating even after the Covid-19 outbreak subsides and things return to normal. Any revenue, after expenses, will be donated to King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital's heart centre, Mr Dhanin said.
Meanwhile, Prasit Boondoungprasert, chief executive of Charoen Pokphand Foods Plc (CPF), said CPF has started supplying free meals to medical personnel and quarantined people across the nation in a move to ease the burden. Separately, according to Office of Vocational Education Commission, the Education Ministry has ordered vocational institutes to help produce face masks. The office said vocational colleges with mask-making abilities should be able to produce 50,000 to 100,000 masks a month.