The COVID-19, or coronavirus global pandemic, has required huge responses from governments all over the world. Timor-Leste has its own unique requirements when addressing an event of this magnitude. This research aims to understand: - The concerns of the people of Timor-Leste - How well people are adopting prevention measures and taking care of their health - The level of trust in government - The use of, and satisfaction with, government programs - The social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic - How household tasks have been distributed during the pandemic - The resilience of individuals and their communities - The sources of news and information the people of Timor-Leste are relying on to stay informed about the pandemic, and - People's views and understanding about the vaccine.
This policy review presents an overall overview of COVID-19 pandemic impact on health and economy in developed and developing countries. Besides, it highlights the key responses and measures taken so far to control the spread of the diseases. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to impact economy so hard that the global growth could be as low as 2%, along with drop in trade from 13% to 32%. In the US only, 22 million people applied for unemployment benefits. In Europe, services sector has crashed as lockdowns caused businesses closures. Similarly, Spain, France, and Germany have all recorded the lowest readings in their business surveys. In Pakistan, more than 25% of the population lives below the poverty line; it is estimated that poverty shall increase from 75 million to around 130 million in case of protracted lockdown. Moreover, the absence of universal health coverage may also force people to sell their possessions or get loans from informal moneylenders at manipulative rates. In this chaotic situation, the government should allocate more money for its health budget. Pakistan should take steps towards practical policies to tackle the further impact of COVID-19. Pakistan should keep digital database of all sorts of labourers (formal and informal) as it will help the government reach the poor and needy segments of the communities on time.
Developing Asia has suffered as the COVID-19 pandemic persists. Growth, trade, and tourism collapsed in 2020, leading to the region's first economic contraction in nearly 6 decades. Governments across Asia acted quickly to contain the virus and its economic effects, and signs of bottoming out have now appeared. Inflation remains benign, constrained by depressed demand and declining food prices. A prolonged pandemic is the primary downside risk to the outlook. Persistent or renewed outbreaks and a return to stringent containment could possibly derail the recovery and trigger financial turmoil. Recovery depends on measures to address the health crisis and on continued policy support. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of wellness, both physical and mental. Wellness—the pursuit of holistic health and well-being—is a component of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. This report evaluates the state of wellness in Asia, documents how the wellness economy is a large and growing part of the region's economy, and discusses how policy makers can promote wellness by creating healthy living environments, encouraging physical activity and healthy diets, and enhancing workplace wellness.
The COVID-19 pandemic is leading to a dramatic rollback of economic progress across Southeast Asia. While the region has managed to contain the spread of the virus better than most others, the economic impact on the region has been devastating. Southeast Asia is highly integrated into the global economy, both with regard to trade, and international travel. Since international travel stopped almost entirely in March 2020, the tourism and business travel sectors have experienced unprecedented contraction. Many small businesses have closed permanently as they cannot survive the economic contractions brought on by COVID-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions. With each passing month, millions more workers workers become at risk of sliding into poverty, including many in the middle class. As the pandemic drags on, temporary job losses have become permanent, and household incomes have plummeted. Governments across Southeast Asia have responded with an array of new programs to help the people and small businesses most affected by the pandemic. Many governments have expanded their social protection schemes, or introduced new programs so that they can provide additional income, and temporarily reduce expenses or delay payments by people who have lost their jobs and income. For small businesses, governments have introduced new subsidized loan programs, tax breaks, debt repayment holidays, and incentives for keeping employees on the payroll. These crucial programs will be essential for economic recovery, and the prevention of large-scale increases in poverty and inequality. One critical challenge for governments, however, is the lack of timely information on the economic and social impacts of the pandemic. Across Asia, governments have had to make major decisions about COVID-19 economic relief measures with little reliable and up-to date information. As large amounts of public funds are being mobilized to help address the unprecedented crisis, governments must have ground-level data on how small businesses and workers are being affected, and how they are coping. This information is essential so that governments can target their programs to achieve maximum benefit. However, until social distancing restrictions have been lifted, government data collection processes are unlikely to generate these critically needed data. Therefore, collecting data through telephone calls and online platforms is urgently needed. To address this need for accurate data on how COVID-19 is disrupting micro and small enterprises, vulnerable workers, the informal economy, and heavily affected sectors, The Asia Foundation (TAF) is conducting a series of national surveys and case studies in six Southeast Asian countries: Cambodia, the Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic (Lao P.D.R.), Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Timor-Leste. These surveys and cases studies, which are being conducted with TAF's local research partners, are largely carried out via telephone calls and Internet platforms. To determine the key survey questions for all six countries, and make them as locally useful as possible, TAF offices in each country have engaged with national government officials and policy-makers. TAF's local research partners have then finalized and conducted the surveys and case studies, analyzed the data, and collaborated with TAF in writing up the results.
The COVID-19 containment and social restriction measures sent the Indonesian economy into a severe contraction of 5.32 per cent in Q2-2020, the first negative growth since 1999. Faced with a severe policy challenge to reconcile the conflicting imperatives of public health and economic sustenance, the government has loosened the restrictions on people movements. This in turn has elicited criticism that this could be premature, since infections have yet to peak. Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and the tourism sector have been badly hit. Around half of MSMEs have temporarily closed mostly due to a sharp reduction in demand and disruptions in the supply chain. Indonesia's Chamber of Commerce has estimated that the potential loss to the tourism sector will reach USD35 billion, if the dire situation continues until the end of this year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the social and economic outlook for Aotearoa New Zealand. Thousands of jobs have disappeared from the economy, especially in the hospitality and tourism sectors – jobs that were previously often filled by migrants or low-paid local workers. Job losses, however, have also had a significant impact on Māori, Pacific people, people with disabilities, young people and women. While immigration remains tightly restricted because of border controls to prevent importing COVID-19, labour will become relatively more scarce and costly. On the other hand, capital has never been cheaper as the Reserve Bank lowers interest rates. This combination of tightly restricted migration and low-cost capital has rarely existed in our natation's history. It will require a new economic model, and should enable a more equitable one. There is now an opportunity to boost Aotearoa New Zealand talent, especially by bringing previously excluded groups into higher-skilled, higher-paid work that will lift Aotearoa New Zealand's overall productivity and yield more inclusive growth. This is a difficult challenge for any country. To achieve it, Aotearoa New Zealand will have to be bold, flexible, and nimble. New policies are needed to drive this transition. These include boosting wages to encourage firms to innovate, supporting frontier firms, and helping employers and employees with high-end skills training and policies that make labour-market participation easier, especially for those currently out of work or long-term unemployed. Inclusive growth also depends on using better government assessment and more creative ideas to improve the distributional impacts of policy proposals. This discussion paper proposes an agenda that departs from the more traditional approaches to promote inclusive growth.
Most natural and man-made disasters, from earthquakes to climate change to financial crises, have a disproportionately large negative impact on the poor and other vulnerable or marginalised groups. Pandemics like COVID-19 are not an exception. Although COVID-19 may be an "equal opportunity infector",1 the poor are more susceptible to infection and to succumbing to it if infected. The poor are also likely to bear a disproportionately high share of the burden of curtailment measures designed to curb the spread of the virus. COVID-19 not only highlights existing inequalities and disparities, it exacerbates them. Therefore, informed policy making that considers these ground realities and how they affect costs and benefits is critical especially in countries with high proportions of the poor, and where safety nets are likely to be weak. Unfortunately, limited testing capabilities is another feature of being poor, and this prevents the assembly of data required to make informed decisions. Fear of the unknown, coupled with the potential for exponential spread, is leading governments in poor countries to err on the side of caution and to employ draconian measures. Lockdowns are being prolonged because the data required to support a safe lifting of the measures cannot be collected, even though the same data deficit means that extensions may not be justified either. The costs of lockdowns on the welfare of the poor is rising, and can accelerate the longer they are in place, in the absence of income support. The infection curve finds its counterpart in the misery curve, which measures the loss of incomes and livelihoods, contributing to long-term and sometimes irreversible harm. This makes prolonged lockdowns not only a potentially erroneous policy instrument for minimising overall harm, it is also likely to render them ineffective since implementation will be compromised as violations begin to increase. This suggests that there may be a need, over time, to ease certain restrictions that inflict significant misery on vulnerable groups. Otherwise, violations may increase to a point where they compromise the overall objectives of the lockdown, causing health and economic crises that together approximate a humanitarian disaster.
The Asian Development Bank conducted a Philippine enterprise survey during April and May 2020 to gauge the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the business community. This report provides a rich set of initial facts and ideas for the government to develop evidence-based policymaking to support the revival of Philippine enterprises hurt by the pandemic. It also provides survey-based information for current and future analytical use.
Multilateral Matters is the quarterly publication of the Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS), analyzing the most recent developments regarding multilateralism by our team. It covers articles on relevant economic and political issues as well as programmed and latest publications from the research center. The objective of the newsletter is to promote the research being done by our centre, raising awareness of the many events that we hold on a regular basis.
The COVID-19 outbreak is affecting regional economies. To cope with grim growth prospects, governments are leaning on fiscal stimulus to weather the crisis. Such policy measures will largely be determined by politics as different sectors compete for limited resources.
The economy of Batam Island, one of the most favoured tourist destinations for Singaporeans, has deteriorated significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. What are the implications and how has the local government managed the situation?
The objectives of CPD's media briefing, which is being organised as part of its COVID-19 Monitoring Initiative, are three-fold: To share CPD's assessment of GoB'spublic policy response in view of the ongoing corona emergency situation. To present CPD's proposals to ensure food and income security in the situation of severe disruptions and lockdown. To disseminate CPD's proposals which has sent to the NBR in view of the FY2021 budget. Today's presentation will focus on following issues: Quick assessment of government's economic interventions in view of COVID-19. An estimate of the food and income support, particularly for the marginalised people. CPD's budget proposals submitted to the NBR.
The main objective of this assignment is to assess the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on the severely affected sectors of the economy including travel and tourism and associated informal economy. The emphasis is on the poor and groups made vulnerable by the crisis. The study intends to inform targeted measures to be taken by the government to mitigate the effects and to enhance community resilience. This assessment is closely coordinated with relevant government departments, as well as potential stakeholders that are currently involved in discussions around response and recovery. The assessment is rapid in nature to enable swift design and delivery of response measures to reduce the negative impacts at the household and community level.
Towards the end of 2019, the global economy appeared to be on an optimistic path of expansion, financial markets were bullish, and trade and political tensions were predictable. The onslaught of COVID-19 in early 2020, has abruptly cast a dark shadow of uncertainty through a concerted health, economic and humanitarian crisis playing out synchronously across the world. As countries have tried to 'flatten the curve' through lockdowns and social distancing guidelines, these measures have restricted the flow of goods, capital and labor, disrupted global supply chains, and resulted in losses of jobs and income, defaults and bankruptcies. Global efforts to flatten the 'infection curve' has triggered a macroeconomic 'recession curve'. The IFIs have projected a contraction of the global economy ranging between 3.3 percent and 5.2 percent, which is likely to worsen under more pessimistic scenarios. Cross border flows such as trade, capital flows and remittances also are expected to shrink in 2020. Likewise, logistics restrictions have prompted multinational firms to either diversify supplies over efficiency gains or turn inwards. Tourist arrivals is estimated to fall by 60 to 80 percent in 2020, translating to a decline in international tourism receipts (exports) of USD 80 billion globally. Nevertheless, countries are trying to carve safe corridors or 'bubbles' where groups of countries that have tamed the spread of coronavirus would be allowed to travel only among themselves as tourists or even temporary migrants. Furthermore, consumers tend to buy more essential goods and postpone conspicuous consumption in uncertain times: worldwide spending on tourism has seen a fall of over 50 percent. Likewise, lockdowns have prompted adoption of digital and low-touch activities. Some countries stand out for having tackled COVID-19 through widespread testing and contact tracing, early preparedness; harnessing of technology, often a result of sustained public investments in health infrastructure and leadership that believes in accountability.
COVID-19 originated in China with the first reported cases in December 2019, and then spread across well over 200 countries, territories and areas in less than four months. In the Philippines, the first confirmed case was on January 30, 2020 (involving a 38-year-old Chinese national from Wuhan), and the first recorded COVID-19 related death outside China was in Metro Manila on 2 February 2020.1 COVID-19 cases in the Philippines shot up to over 35,000 confirmed cases, and over 1,200 deaths in a span of less than five months since that first case. Unfortunately, it appears that the Philippines is still stuck in the long first wave of infections. Metro Manila and Metro Cebu, the two largest urban agglomerations in the country, have endured long periods of severe social lockdown put in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus in and from these pandemic epi-centres. COVID-19 and the resulting lockdown measures have plunged the Philippine economy into its first recession in two decades. The government estimates that the lockdown of Northern Luzon alone could have cost up to PhP24 billion a day in output losses.
