Transforming Southeast Asia’s established tourism, garments and agro-processing industries, and leveraging advances in electronics and digital trade could support the region’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report, which said the e-commerce boom makes upgrading the garment sector a critical need.
Improving competitiveness through simplified business regulations, faster digital technology adoption, stronger research and development, a greater focus on culture-related garments, skills training and establishing more flexible production and business models could support the industry’s growth, the report noted.
It urged governments in the region to add higher-value agro-processing activities that can support a post-pandemic recovery. The agricultural sector, however, was less affected by the pandemic, it noted.
“Recovery prospects in Southeast Asia are encouraging, but not without persistent risks, including heightened uncertainty from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the evolving conflict, the emergence of coronavirus variants and the scarring effects of the pandemic through large employment and education losses, production disruptions and fragile business confidence, and declining productivity growth,” said ADB director general for Southeast Asia Ramesh Subramaniam.
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