The announcement over the weekend that the G-7 would throw its weight behind a U.S.-led proposal to create an alternative to China's eight-year-old Belt and Road Initiative was met with cautious optimism by international development experts.
Cambodia shut clothing factories and put some worker communities under strict lockdowns in mid-April as hundreds of new coronavirus cases were detected each day, with infections at more than 100 factories.
NagaWorld resort told more than 15 percent of staff this month that they will be laid off in the next few weeks.
The report shows 7.1 percent growth for the industry and manufacturing sector, 1.3 percent for agriculture, and 3.3 percent in the services sector.
As of Friday, all the markets in Phnom Penh and one in neighboring Takhmau city have been closed by authorities for having a high incidence rate of COVID-19.
Phnom Penh residents are facing food shortages and financial strife as the capital and Takhmau city complete a week of the country’s two-week lockdown.
The #PayYourWorkers campaign said brands and retailers that made a profit in 2020 - like Nike, Amazon, and Next - could stop garment workers "going hungry" and set up a severance fund by paying manufacturers the equivalent of $0.10 more per t-shirt.
Chheng Kimlong, director of the Asian Vision Institute’s Centre for Governance Innovation and Democracy, said the outbreak would hurt local consumption, the service sector, and export production.
The central bank has introduced small- and large-denomination riel notes ranging from 100 to 100,000 riel (about $25), but their arrival caused confusion and rumors among traders in the local markets that U.S. $1 and $5 notes had been banned.
The death of a 31-year-old Cambodian woman worker at one of the farms in December has revived decades-long criticism over South Korean exploitation of some of the poorest, most vulnerable people in Asia.
While Cambodia has officially recorded less than 700 cases of COVID-19 and no deaths, the pandemic has taken a heavy toll on Cambodian communities in Thailand, with job losses, workplace shutdowns, and coronavirus fears sending droves to the border.
In 2020, Cambodia’s aquaculture sector produced 400,000 tons of fish product, an increase of 30 percent over 2019, according to Agriculture Ministry statistics.
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