SOUTHEAST Asia is set to lose millions of jobs if governments fail to curb the Covid-19 pandemic, reports the Straits Times.

The Singapore daily citing a report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) said regional governments still have ample policy space to both save jobs while supporting minimum living standards for households.

In the policy paper on the Asia Pacific region issued last week (March 26), Escap noted that while exact data on the impact of the pandemic on employment remained unavailable, “t

“The impact is likely to be substantial as services and labour-intensive manufacturing comprise more than 80% of the region’s informal sector and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and contribute to most of the jobs in the region,” said Escap in a policy paper.

“Millions of jobs are at stake for sure,” Escap’s Dr Hamza Ali Malik told The Straits Times, adding that SMEs will be “very severely affected” and will need support to help them recover and deal with any economic transition.

The fear is that Southeast Asia lacks good social protection systems with many vulnerable people out there as layoffs and unemployment increase, he said.

Growth in Southeast Asia is likely to decelerate from 4.4% in 2019 to 1% this year before rebounding to 4.7% in 2021, said the Asia Development Bank in a report issued yesterday.

The region’s strong trade and investment ties with China will provide some cushioning, ADB said, projecting Indonesia’s growth to shrink from 5 % last year to 2.5% this year.

Thailand is expected to perform the worst with a 4.8% contraction, “continuing a steady slide in recent years”.

“Growth in the closely intertwined economies of Malaysia and Singapore will plummet nearly to zero in 2020, with only Malaysia enjoying a strong rebound next year,” it said.

Vietnam’s annual average growth of 7% will slow to 4.8% (2020), while Singapore is expected to eke out just 0.2% growth. – April 4, 2020.