Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA)- The textile industry in the CLMV (Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam) has comeunder near-term threat from the global COVID-19 outbreak, especially for keyproducer Cambodia.
Singapore’s BusinessTimes newspaper has quoted Sian Fenner, lead Asia economist at Oxford Economics,as saying that lockdowns adopted to contain the spread of the virus have had asevere impact on manufacturing and exports in the four countries.
The textile industry wassingled out as a sector badly hit by the pandemic as more than 55 percent ofthe materials that go to clothes manufacturing in Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnamcome from China where factories were shuttered in early 2020.
Cambodia is expected to bear the brunt of the CMLVslowdown, since 66 percent of its exports are generated by the clothingindustry, which has historically reaped benefits from foreign directinvestment.
Fenner forecast that FDIinflows will fall sharply this year and the recovery into 2021 will be mutedamid weak global demand for apparel and the partial withdrawal from the “EverythingBut Arms” scheme with the EU.
However, the CMLV bloc isstill tipped to turn in stronger growth than the ASEAN-5 economies - Indonesia,Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
Oxford Economicspredicted that CMLV economic growth is likely to average 5.1 percent from 2020to 2028, outpacing the ASEAN-5’s estimated average of 4 percent./.
