Suchergebnisse

The Cambodian economy has experienced rapid growth in recent decades, with its gross national income per capita increasing to US$1,119 in 2018 from US$ 337 in 1995. A key driver of this remarkable economic growth is the substantial increase of garment exports to high-income markets such as the European Union (EU), the United States, Canada, and Japan. However, Cambodia's economic prospects are becoming increasingly uncertain after the EU announced in February 2019 its intention to launch a procedure to temporarily withdraw tariff preferences granted to Cambodia under the "Everything But Arms" (EBA) arrangement, over concerns related to serious human and labour rights violations in the country. In response, the Cambodian Ministry of Economy and Finance said that the government has reserved around US$3 billion to cope with the possible suspension. The possible withdrawal of the EBA has been recognised as a shock capable of triggering an economic crisis. How important is the EU market for Cambodian exports? How did garment exports to the EU become so important to the Cambodian economy? What impact have exports to the EU had on trade, investment, and jobs in Cambodia? Why does the EU intend to suspend the EBA for Cambodia? Answers to these questions will shed light on the implications of the EBA withdrawal for Cambodia.

Following a substantial increase in Indica rice imports from Cambodia and Myanmar, the European Union (EU) adopted safeguard measures to reinstate the common‐customs tariff rate of 175 euros per ton from 2019, with progressive liberalization over three years. To estimate the impact of safeguard duties, this paper uses a sample of milled rice imports from 28 EU importers during 2017–20 and adopts a triple‐differences approach. The results show that safeguard duties have a significantly negative impact on import values and quantity of affected goods and a significantly positive impact on import prices. Safeguard duties appear to induce trade redirection to other third markets but produce little substitution effects for EU rice producers.

This study examines the role of management practices in the internationalisation of domestic firms through directly exporting and/or supplying to local affiliates of multinationals. An original survey of manufacturing firms in Viet Nam was conducted, investigating their management practices such as human resource management and internationalisation status. The survey results shed light on similarities and dissimilarities among firms in several dimensions of management practices. Findings reveal that internationalised firms tended to be more enthusiastic about the formal training of production workers, the modernisation of production and operation, and product and process innovation. Differences in skills and experience requirements for newly employed managers were less recognisable, but internationalised firms tended to have managers who studied overseas. Furthermore, the use of public support to employee training, teamwork in production, and unionisation of employees did not show a significant difference bet ween internationalised and non internationalised firms.

Less developed countries have received substantial foreign aid for transport infrastructure, making its quantitative assessment important. To investigate the effect of aid for road infrastructure on the location of foreign and domestic firms, this study employs the first comprehensive census on all business establishments in Cambodia for 2011 and measures the geographical distribution of aid disbursements in roads. Estimating a negative binomial model, we find that aid disbursements in roads have little influence on the entry of foreign and domestic firms across communes. Compared with the aid effect, the location of firms is more strongly influenced by other determinants such as population size, electricity access, and labor supply.