The Finance Ministry has instructed state-owned banks to provide free lunch boxes to people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana said on Friday the government was trying to get the economy moving again, but nobody knew for sure when the pandemic would end.
The free meals to be offered by branches of state banks across the country would be just one more measure to assist people hurt by the spread of the coronavirus, Mr Uttama said.
He spoke after meeting with senior executives of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, Government Housing Bank, Government Savings Bank and Krungthai Bank. The minister asked they get feed-back from their branches on implementation of the project.
This was short-term assistance, he said. It was also necessary to look ahead, for ways to create jobs so people could have an income, he said.
The post Covid-19 economy would be evaluated later. What the government was doing now was to strengthen the internal economy, such as the 400 billon-baht budget slated for social and economic rehabilitation that would benefit communities under the sufficiency economy philosophy, Mr Uttama said.
