Asean, Partners To Benefit From Economic Interconnection With China

KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 (Bernama) -- ASEAN and its Plus 3 partners (China, Japan and South Korea) are expected to see a modest recovery although the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region is forecast to record a 2.7 per cent decline in growth this year due to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, said APEC Secretariat executive director Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria. This is given the Asian region’s interconnected economy with China, she said. “As you know, in Asia the supply chain is integrated and if you see manufacturing picking up in China, it is because all our supply chains are linked to China, especially ASEAN. “So you will see some improvement there,” she said during the World Economic Forum-World Health Organisation Western Pacific Region media briefing today. The one-hour session brought together key experts from the public health, government, business and media sectors to share their insights on the COVID-19 crisis. According to Sta Maria, the 21-member economies of APEC acknowledge there would be a contraction in real gross domestic product and the region is expected to see loss of employment and slower economic activities. In its recent APEC Policy Support Unit policy brief titled “APEC in the Epicentre of COVID-19”, Sta Maria said the region’s growth is expected to fall by 2.7 per cent this year, translating to an estimated output loss of US$2.1 trillion compared with the 3.6 per cent growth in 2019. She noted that this was the most significant drop since the near-zero growth rate recorded in 2009 during the global financial crisis. It is compounded by an additional 23 million people becoming unemployed in 2020. However, she said, member economies were on the front line for meeting this challenge as they were among the first and worst affected by the pandemic. Meanwhile, she also expressed optimism that the integration of the ASEAN+3 through the Regional Economic Comprehensive Partnership would lend some optimism in the region. -- BERNAMA