The Covid-19 pandemic has devastated many developing countries, particularly those in East and Southeast Asia due to their heavy reliance on global economic connections and low public health capacity. Although many have managed a respectful rebound since early 2021, uncertainties in world economic recovery have left many economies in unstable positions. Our study on developing Southeast Asia has several main findings. First, government expenditure on health and economic stimulus packages to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 pandemic in developing ASEAN […]

Cambodia’s economy has made significant progress over the decades. However, the smooth and robust developments were significantly disturbed in 2020 with the arrival of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Globally, both internal and external demands, FDI flows, the movement of goods, and travel were all severely impacted by governments increasingly imposing lockdowns and other restrictions to contain the spread of the unprecedented and deadly disease. From an economic standpoint, sectors that are high-contact including tourism, textile and apparel, construction, and real […]

Despite growing research on COVID-19 and its impacts on Cambodia, the extent to which COVID-19 affects Cambodia’s trade, global value chains (GVCs) and export competitiveness has not yet been well established. This study, therefore, aims to fill knowledge gaps and examine the dynamic of Cambodia’s exports, GVCs and competitiveness during the pandemic. Specifically, it analyses Cambodia’s export performance and assesses the extent to which the pandemic affects Cambodia’s export structure and dynamic comparative advantage. The paper will also conduct an […]

In early 2020, Covid-19 caused a global health crisis which drastically limited human interactions and economic activities both within and across borders, disrupted global supply chains, and resulted in economic slowdowns in countries around the world. Cambodia is no exception in this pandemic era. Cambodia registered a negative economic growth rate of -3.1% in 2020 as its service and industry sectors experienced severe declines (-6.7% and -1.2%, respectively). As a small, export-dependent economy, Cambodia is susceptible to external environment conditions. […]

Entrepreneurship is crucial to advancing the economy of Cambodia and fostering the development of society. The Royal Government of Cambodia has recognised the importance of entrepreneurship and included the promotion and entrepreneurship education in multiple policies and strategy. Universities and higher education institutes have been more active in providing entrepreneurship education (EE) as well as services and facilities to support startups in recent years. However, to date, there is very limited research on how young people in Cambodia perceive and […]

In the Mekong-Lancang basin, intergovernmental scientific water data sharing has progressively expanded between governments since the early 1990s as an outcome of water diplomacy efforts. Much of this scientific water data has been made public via online platforms.Water data underpins water diplomacy, including through trust building and providing evidence. It is crucial in the Mekong-Lancang basin given changing river conditions due to large dam operations, climate change and other development trends that have intensified hydropolitics in recent years.As water data […]

Internationalisation is known to contribute to higher education development, particularly through the integration of international, inter-cultural or global dimensions into the purpose, functions, or delivery of higher education institutions (Knight 2004). Within this inter-connected world, higher education institutions are pressured to produce quality human resources with global citizenship characteristics. Students have benefited greatly from this process as they can have access to international/regional standards of education services and the opportunity to be exposed to other countries, people, and cultures. Academics […]

While digital transformation around the globe has significantly gained momentum and speed, embracing technologies in our daily life is now beyond question. In this regard, we need to ask whether or not individuals are ready to accept and use technologies when provided and what really affects one’s technology readiness. The main objective of this study is to understand the role of parents and family background in influencing an undergraduate student’s technological readiness. We employ the Ordinary Least Square Regression method […]

The 14th Outlook Conference held on 6 October 2022 brought together leaders in government, business, development, and academics to discuss these important issues. The conference focused on exploring possible ways forward for Cambodia to achieve inclusive and sustainable development in the context of post-COVID-19 recovery in order to achieve upper-middle income country status by 2030. This policy brief outlines the policy considerations which emerged from the conference, beginning with risks and opportunities facing Cambodia, changes that should be made to […]

Understanding what determines a worker’s passion for skills training has important policy implications, particularly in the current context of the fourth industrial revolution, in which knowledge is deemed obsolete within several years. The purpose of this study is to answer a specific question: are higher-ability garment workers more likely to engage in industrial skills training? To do so, we use a dataset with a final sample of 787 garment workers in Cambodia. We apply logit and cluster-standard-error Ordinary Least Square […]

To accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal on clean water and sanitation, the focus of WASH programming in developing countries has shifted from a traditional infrastructure approach to a more systems-based approach. Greater emphasis on a systems approach has also drawn attention to the significant role played by local leadership in developing sustainable WASH systems. Building on the evidence of the effectiveness of leaders trained through the Civic Champions Program, an innovative leadership development program in Cambodia, this […]