Dear Friends and Members of the Stcc
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APRIL 2020 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #117 TOP NEWS SUPPORTED BY Deutsche Bank: How Asia fights the virus Legal: COVID-19 Prevention Measure under Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act New Members: Haefele (Thailand) Ltd. / Mr. Thomas Fritz Covid-19: Corona Resources Links THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE DEAR FRIENDS AND MEMBERS OF THE STCC all about the Covid-19 pandemic crisis and its impact on our so- cial life, financial markets and our businesses. The Americans would call this “a life changing event” and the world might nev- er be the same as it was before. For starters, the Covid-19 out- break showed us many things, PRESIDENT BRUNO G. ODERMATT but foremost how globally con- nected we are. It has introduced We are living in extraordinary some unique terms into our times and if you look at the everyday vocabulary, such as SERVICE events of the last 4 weeks, one “social distancing”, “coronavi- can only be bewildered. Whereas rus”, “pandemic”, “ventilators” MEMBER DETAIL the major stock market index- and the newest one, “rationing”. es were at their all-time peaks As an example, in Italy and Spain, UPDATES just 2 months ago, within three where the pandemic has been weeks it all collapsed in unison spinning out of control, doctors Do you have changes among your – equities, bonds, commodi- working in Intensive Care units delegates or changes to your ties and currencies. It all start- have to decide who will receive e-mail, mobile, telephone, ed on Monday, March 9th, when full care based on age and health or fax numbers? the Dow Jones crashed with the status. There is a severe lack of largest point plunge in history. medical tools and equipment. Please send all updates to It was legendary investor War- How, for instance, does a patient [email protected] rant Buffet who commented on qualify for a ventilator? How old CNBC, “If you stick around long is too old, too? In Madrid the an- enough, you’ll see everything swer was 65, meaning if you are in markets, and it took me to 89 65 and over, then it was time to years of age to throw this into the say good-by to your loved ones. experience”. I guess this says it What is currently happening in 1 APRIL 2020 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #117 THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE SUPPORTED BY Europe is a human tragedy and US this is 10% of national GDP, it is now arriving in the USA. As which means size really matters of this writing, the USA record- in such an unprecedented crisis ed more than 190,000 cases, and if you go in, you have to go in half of those in New York. Amer- a big way. It is clear that, besides ican hospitals have only about financial injections to support 96,000 intensive care beds and failing businesses, this new era an estimated 60,000 full-fea- also requires universal access to tured ventilators (source WHO). health care, paid sick leave and You get the picture. How can we economic support for those who as a civilized society in the first lost their jobs. world, in the time of immense technological developments, In this issue of the newsletter you end up in such a dire situation? will find some useful information It’s a tough question to answer. related to Covid-19 measures taken by the Thai government. As this pandemic wreaks havoc A number of affected member across the globe and lockdowns companies also share their expe- across many countries cause tre- riences. The STCC also takes part TRINA INTERNATIONAL mendous hardship on their pop- in the crisis team of the Swiss ulations and economy, there is Embassy in supporting stranded still a positive twist to it. Every tourists to find their way back cloud has a silver lining, and I to Switzerland and calm down have hardly experienced such stressed out local residents. It is clean air in Bangkok. People great to see that the Swiss Em- are now working from home and bassy has assumed strong lead- are enjoying it, suddenly video ership in this difficult time and conferencing is becoming cool it makes our lives easier as well. and there is no more need for Even during lockdowns, curfews business class travel, traffic is and social distancing, we still as light as ever, and people find need to be united in our efforts more time to connect with fami- to fight this pandemic and we lies and friends. Beaches, islands need to reach out to each other. and waterfalls in Thailand look As we informed you earlier, all different now, as there are not STCC events such as or Annual just fewer people and cars, but General Meeting, Luncheons, also less garbage strewn around. Stamm, were cancelled until fur- What is also good to see is that ther notice. We do not know how governments are stepping up to things will develop, but we com- the plate with massive financial ply with government regulations assistance, such a $2 trillion and adhere to their recommen- fiscal stimulus package in the dations. A number of our mem- US and a 200 billion Baht stim- ber companies are going through ulus package in Thailand. In the stressful times and many of their 2 APRIL 2020 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #117 THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE employees either work from home to your friends and colleagues Contact the President: or are furloughed. We just hope at the Chamber. Bruno G. Odermatt that once as things are back to President STCC normal, we learn from this crisis With my best wishes [email protected] and are well prepared for what is Tel: +66 2 652 1911 coming up next. With this in mind, I wish you lots Bruno G. Odermatt-Maag of courage in keeping your busi- President ness afloat during these difficult times and please stay connected *** STCC CALENDAR APRIL 2020: Due to the Corona Situation all activities of the Chamber are put on hold. More details for above events please wait for the invitation-mail or get it from www.swissthai.com, click on “events”. Adhesive & Sealant Technologies MS Hybrid Polymer best performing window, door and facade sealant. Southeast Asia Link Co., Ltd. www.seal-ast.com T: 0 2732 2092 3 APRIL 2020 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #117 ECONOMY SPECIAL REPORT BY DEUTSCHE BANK HOW ASIA FIGHTS THE VIRUS The Covid-19 pandemic has moved from North down the spread of the virus even after there has Asia, where it first appeared in China, to Europe been a community outbreak. and the United States and other countries. We explain in this report what strategies have been New information technologies offer not only the used in Asia to contain the virus outbreak. These hope of an earlier vaccine or treatment of this new have varied from the very prescriptive “lockdown” virus than might have been possible a few years of Hubei, and now Malaysia, Luzon in the Philip- ago but also the means of disseminating informa- pines, and much of India to the much less intru- tion about the risks of infection to individuals sive approaches towards social distancing in Hong who can then choose for themselves how much Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. distance to keep from others. It also offers power- ful tools to governments to speed up the identi- The fact that the progression of the virus, as de- fication of potential carriers who have come into scribed by the epidemic curves, is so similar across close contact with people who tested positive and Hubei, Mainland China ex-Hubei and South Korea cut short the transmission of the disease. informs our view that “lockdown” is not necessary to contain the outbreak. A global pandemic In our view, stopping the transmission of the virus The Covid-19 pandemic is now a truly global calam- requires changing peoples’ behavior and this does ity and the focus has shifted over thepast couple of not require locking them in their homes. Hong weeks from Asia to Europe and the United States. Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan Europe adds in a day now more new cases than all show that simple social distancing practices – hy- of Asia has seen all month. As many people have giene, the wearing of masks, avoiding crowded tested positive in Europe in the past five days as in places – can be sufficient to dramatically slow China since the beginning of the year. And the US, 4 APRIL 2020 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #117 ECONOMY SPECIAL REPORT BY DEUTSCHE BANK now that testing has begun in earnest, has seen number of cases is also rising much more slowly in its caseload soar. Korea than it was earlier this month. As the number of new cases slowed in China in late February, the government beganencouraging peo- ple to go back to work. Tomorrow, some 300,000 mi- grant workers in Wuhan will begin to make the jour- ney back to their places of work in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere. The government plans to end restric- tions on travel into and out from Wuhan on April 8. China is being credited – perhaps too soon – with controlling the virus. There have been only 417 new cases in the past two weeks in the whole country and 86% of them have been travellers from abroad. The Elsewhere in the region, caseloads continue to rise. In Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan,case numbers have grown more rapidly in recent days, mainly to the return from abroad of residents car- rying the disease.