The COVID-19 pandemic will significantly affect the exports of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV bloc of nations), according to Oxford Economics, which recently forecast that foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow into Cambodia will fall sharply this year and the recovery in 2021 will be muted amid weak global demand for apparel and the partial withdrawal of the European Union’s Everything But Arms scheme.
Up to 66 per cent of Cambodia’s exports are generated by the apparel industry.The pandemic will significantly affect the exports of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, according to Oxford Economics, which has forecast that foreign direct investment inflow into Cambodia will fall sharply this year and the recovery in 2021 will be muted amid weak global apparel demand and the partial withdrawal of the EU's Everything But Arms scheme.#
Although FDI into the garment sectors continued to flow into Cambodia, the number of jobs created is not keeping pace with the number of jobs displaced, the company said.
Oxford Economics further stressed that despite this scenario, the group of nations is still tipped to turn in stronger growth than the ASEAN-5 economies—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
It predicted that the bloc’s economic growth is likely to average 5.1 per cent from 2020 to 2028, outpacing the ASEAN-5’s estimated average of 4 per cent.
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