Manufacture of medical equipment 'needs to be higher on national priority'
Thailand should upgrade the medical equipment and health sectors as industries important to national security, Adisorn Apasuthirat, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries' Medical and Health Device Manufacture Industry Club, said.
He said that during a global outbreak, countries will suffer acute shortage of medical supplies due to high demand and hoarding.
Some local factories have shifted the focus from producing equipment for beauty surgery to virus-protection gears to help deal with the situation.
He said that as some new virus was emerging every year, Thailand needed to have a strategy to promote the manufacture of medical equipment to make it well prepared for any outbreaks in the future.
