Illustrative image (Photo: Yahoo) Phnom Penh (VNA) – Cambodia could lose more than 15 percent of its international remittances this year under the worst-case scenario because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Based on the country’s total remittances of 2.8 billion USD in 2019, more than 420 million USD will not be sent home in 2020 – mostly from Thailand – because hundreds of thousands of workers have returned home.
In its report on “COVID-19 Impact on International Migration, Remittance, and Recipient Households in Developing Asia”, the ADB said that the economic recession caused by COVID-19 threatens the job security and wellbeing of more than 91 million international migrants from Asia and the Pacific.
Total remittances to Asia are expected to drop between 31.4 billion USD (baseline scenario) and 54.3 billion USD (worst-case scenario) this year, equivalent to 11.5 percent and 19.8 percent of money sent home, respectively, according to the report.
Among developing Southeast Asian economies, the Philippines is the most affected, with remittances falling more than 20 percent and others such as Cambodia in excess of 15 percent, the report said.
Cambodian migrant workers from the Republic of Korea and Japan sent home 12.91 million USD via ACLEDA Bank Plc in the first haft of this year, a decline of 1.41million USD from the same period last year, according to figures from the financial institution.
Last year, 1.2 million Cambodian workers, employed in Thailand, the RoK, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong (China), Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, sent home some 2.8 billion USD in remittances, an increase from 1.4 billion USD in 2018, according to figures from the Cambodian Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training./.
VNA
