Rebuilding from the Impacts of COVID-19: Experience and Perspectives from Southeast Asia/East Asia
The COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 has had unprecedented impacts all over the world. For instance, a COVID-19 baseline forecast suggested that about 88 million people globally have been pushed to extreme poverty in 2020.2 Businesses, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and jobs were gravely affected – with companies pressed to reduce workers, working hours and/or wages, and even close up shop. In the area of education, no less than 1.5 billion students are estimated to be out of school at the peak of the pandemic. The learning losses and dropout rates are expected to have an effect on economic opportunities (e.g. potential earnings) of these students in the future. 3 Being one of the first regions affected by the outbreak in 2020, Southeast Asia/East Asia was not spared from the impacts of the pandemic. The restrictions imposed by the governments to contain the disease have affected the economy, prompting the ministries and international organizations to downgrade their initial growth projections by second quarter of 2020. In ASEAN, all countries had reduced forecasts, with Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand having negative growth rates.4 On the second year of the pandemic, countries in Southeast Asia/East Asia are continuously facing its impacts on the economy and society. Economies are recuperating as restrictions are gradually being relaxed and government support is continuously being given. However, the impact remains as transmission of the virus is unceasing, especially as new variants are emerging and have most recently been causing an increase in number of infected cases. Hence, the return of lockdowns, travel and mobility restrictions, and other containment and preventive measures.