Page 64 - AEI Insights Vol. 7 2021

AEI Insights, Vol 7, Issue 1, 2021

The ASEAN region's lowest case counts were held by Myanmar until August 2020. But the
number of cases soared sharply thereafter, primarily due to the pandemic in Rakhine State
which has spread across the largest cities of Myanmar. In the event of an escalating wave of
infections, the under-developed health care system in Myanmar may not be able to cope with
the pandemic. In addition, the on-going targeting of the internet ban may lead to some
conflicting regions of Myanmar not being aware of the pandemic. Other measures to contain
the spread include extending the stay-at-home order and closing schools while businesses are
permitted to remain open.

Despite poor healthcare infrastructures and an initially slow response, Cambodia reported few
cases and zero casualties. This has contributed to a widespread speculation of inadequate
counting of infections. The government declared the closing of schools throughout the country
in March 2020. The Ministry of Education approved the reopening of kindergartens and
elementary schools by August 2020. The government has already reopened places of worship,
educational institutions and several industries with plans to revive the whole economy. Flights
to several Chinese cities and some countries in Southeastern Asia have resumed in Cambodia.
Lao People's Democratic Republic, which is the Southeast Asia's most rural nation, was the
last to announce its first COVID-19 infection. While the healthcare infrastructure is nearly non-
existent, the pandemic has been avoided. This can be explained in terms of geography and
demography factors. The Lao People's Democratic Republic is sparsely populated and enclosed
by residence who managed to relatively well contain this virus. Like its neighbouring countries,
the Lao PDR economy has also been affected despite minimal cases reported. However, Lao's
PDR has already resumed travel to many Southeast Asian countries and fostered domestic
tourism to improve its economy.

The economies of ASEAN were further affected by China's supply and trade disruptions and
by the dramatic drop in foreign tourism, where many countries have taken lockout and social
containment action (OECD 2020). Among the most affected are SMEs, services and the
tourism industry. Governments of ASEAN have adopted incentives to minimise the economic
impact (OECD 2020).

At a regional level, the 26th ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) retreat released a statement
calling for concerted action to mitigate the effects of the virus, focusing on technology
leveraging and digital commerce, as well as commercial facilitation mechanisms to promote
connectivity in the supply chain and sustainability. It is hoped that a post-pandemic recovery
plan and a proposed development of the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund will counteract
social and economic effects in ASEAN (OECD 2020). Therefore, closer regional cooperation
among ASEAN countries is particularly important in the post-COVID 19 period.

General characteristics of the labour market in ASEAN countries

It is interesting to note that there are huge discrepancies in term of geographic size, population
and national income among ASEAN countries. Table 2 reports the land area, total population,
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and per capita GDP in these countries. Firstly, the total land
area in ASEAN countries amounted to 4.6 million square km. The largest country in term of
the area in Indonesia (1.9 million square km) while the smallest country is Singapore (0.7

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