The survey showed that the consumer, resource and industrial sectors are most pessimistic about the disease’s impact, with 38% of them expecting a decrease of 50% or more in future growth.
Global markets surged Wednesday after U.S. leaders announced a massive financial response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Ministry of Labor spokesman Heng Sour said that as of mid-March, 53 factories had suspended their operations because of supply chain issues, affecting at least 34,000 garment workers.
“The government allocates funds based on two scenarios of COVID-19,” he said. “There will be $800 million for a period of six months and $2 billion if the outbreak lasts a year and longer.”
The Ministry of Labor last week confirmed that around 33 factories, employing around 70,000 workers, had applied for work suspension from between 2 weeks to one month, affecting 18,000 of those workers.
The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia has said 60 percent of raw materials were sourced from China. If the stoppage in raw material deliveries continued, factories would have to cease production starting mid-March.
The government and garment manufacturers have maintained that work suspensions were only linked to raw material shortages as China deals with the COVID-19 outbreak, though Monday’s announcements clearly reveal the EBA to be another concern for authorities.
The disruption is hitting as Cambodia’s key garment industry prepares for the loss of about 20% of the trade preferences it enjoys under the “Everything But Arms” (EBA) scheme the EU offers 48 of the world’s poorest countries.
The suspension would affect 20 percent of exports to the EU, amounting to $1.1 billion annually, the Commission said.
Ken Loo, a director at GMAC, said on Monday that 60 percent of materials used in garment production were imported from China. Cambodia is heavily reliant on raw material imports given the lack of locally produced raw material or garment ancillary factories.
Encouraged by Cambodia’s close relationship with China and its economic potential, an army of Chinese developers, business owners, entrepreneurs, construction workers and real estate speculators are placing their bets on Cambodia.
The facility was pegged to process 20,000 tons of sugarcane and produce 2,000 tons of refined sugar, though the firm never released figures for its output.
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