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Cambodia: Unregistered firms remain vulnerable, particularly in tourism sector, says NGO
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) continue facing the brunt of the economic fallout after the community outbreak with an Asia Foundation survey finding that nearly 50 percent of enterprises had closed as of April 2021.
A similar survey conducted between July and November 2020 found that only about 13 percent of SMEs had closed.
“A compliance officer at one of Cambodia’s largest banks estimated that if Covid-19’s spread is not under control by June 2021, by August 2021 there would be a tidal waves of SME bankruptcies,” the nonprofit international development agency reported.
The Asia Foundation warned that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMES) in the tourism sector remain particularly vulnerable to the economic downturn.
Pre-pandemic, the tourism sector was the fastest-growing industry in the Kingdom, averaging an annual increase of 12 percent in tourist arrivals over the last decade.
However, tourism arrivals dropped by an alarming 80 percent last year over 2019 and have continued to decline.
Official Ministry of Tourism data indicates that at least 50,000 people have been laid off from the industry.
The ministry last reported that approximately 300,000 people worked in the industry in 2020.
The government has undertaken its eight round of financial support to relieve financial hardship among SMEs in the tourism sector. However the Asia Foundation noted that “coverage has been quite limited” – largely because micro-sized enterprises tend to be unregistered and do not qualify for incentives or stimulus.
“Female workers were increasingly more affected as the pandemic dragged on – and this intensified after February 2021 … laid off female employees, and especially those in Siem Reap, left to find jobs in cities in other kinds of work, including the garment industry in Phnom Penh. However, the pandemic also started to affect the garment industry. Even opportunities in this low-skilled sector became rarer,” according to the foundation.
Khmer Times has previously reported that garment factories in Phnom Penh and Kandal province were ordered closed earlier this year after thousands of workers tested positive for Coronavirus.
They were only allowed to begin opening in earnest starting in May with conditions set that a certain amount of the workforce must be vaccinated for factories to fully reopen.
The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia said that it had prioritised the vaccination of workers to help the industry get back online after a difficult 2020 that saw orders drop because of decreased demand.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50925526/unregistered-firms-remain-vulnerable-particularly-in-tourism-sector-says-ngo/