Despite being one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, and releasing no new overall emissions inventory since 2000, Cambodia is believed to be emitting more greenhouse gases than its forests can absorb.
The Labor Ministry on Friday ordered workers who traveled to the provinces during the Khmer New Year holiday this week to isolate themselves for 14 days before returning to work in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the labor force.
For indebted garment workers who have been suspended from work due to coronavirus disruptions, money owed to microfinance institutions is a more immediate threat than Covid-19, leading some to consider selling assets before they’re repossessed.
The Agriculture Ministry has instructed local farmers and producers to rethink their mango supply chains, as coronavirus-related economic disruptions have sent the price of the fruit plummeting during peak season.
Cambodia’s service sector will be hit hard by the global economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic, contracting 1.7 percent for the year, the Asian Development Bank said in its latest forecast.
Cambodia’s garment industry group said this week that factory owners would not be able to pay 40 percent of suspended workers’ wages as recommended by the government, as they cut back work for tens of thousands of employees in the sector.
Cambodia’s GDP growth this year could drop to its lowest rate in more than a decade, the World Bank projects, with some economic experts warning that the country’s reliance on international markets could slow recovery.
The nation’s casino and rice industries are the latest sectors to face restrictions as part of the government’s response to Covid-19, leaving some casino workers worried about lost income and the rice sector largely unfazed.
Workers at a Kampong Speu shoe factory protested on Thursday, accusing the owner of suspending them from work without agreeing to pay partial salaries as companies would be required to according to Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Nearly 1,000 garment workers protested outside a Phnom Penh factory on Wednesday after the owner failed to pay their regular wages, which the company said was due to declining payments from buyers during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
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