Cambodia well-positioned for recovery thanks to high vaccination rates, says Asian Development Bank

PHNOM PENH, March 16 (Xinhua): Cambodia is well-positioned for recovery in 2022 thanks to its outstanding progress with its vaccination campaign, according to a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report released on Wednesday.

Titled South-East Asia Rising from the Pandemic, the report said the country's performance in vaccinating its population has been outstanding, far exceeding the performance of countries with similar populations and income levels, which has enabled the government to ease restrictions and reopen its borders.

It said the kingdom has managed the pandemic well and recorded relatively few fatalities.

Despite the strong performance, the pandemic has had a severe impact on the economy, the report said. Sectors including tourism and hospitality, construction and real estate, and garment have weathered large shocks.

"Fortunately, there have also been some bright spots, including rapid growth in non-garment manufacturing exports and a large increase in agricultural exports," it said.

"Sustaining these trends will help the government achieve its vision of a more resilient and diversified economy."

The kingdom's economy is forecast to grow by 5.6 per cent in 2022, up from 3 percent in 2021, said a report from the ministry of economy and finance, adding that the growth is expected at a higher rate of 6.5 percent in 2023 and up to 7 percent in 2024.

Cambodia has so far administered one dose of Covid-19 vaccines to 14.76 million people, or 92.3 percent of its 16 million population, the health ministry said.

Most of the vaccines used in the country's immunization drive are from China's Sinovac and Sinopharm.

"Chinese vaccines are essential for Cambodia to save people's lives and to stabilize our health system," the health ministry's director-general and spokesman Hok Kim Cheng has told Xinhua. - Xinhua