Cambodia, 8 June 2021: Hosted jointly by the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce, ERIA’s Capacity Building Programme held an online workshop on ‘Unlocking the Lockdown: Alignment of Domestic and Regional Policies’ on 8 June. Thirty-seven officials from a range of ministries attended the workshop that was supported by Australia.

Led by Prof Shandre Thangavelu from the University of Adelaide’s Institute of International Trade and the Jeffrey Cheah Institute of Southeast Asia, Sunway University, the workshop focused on key policies issues for managing the post-pandemic recovery and sequencing strategies to emerge from lockdown. Divided into two sessions, the first session focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ASEAN including gaps, challenges and misalignments of domestic policy - with a focus on the importance of addressing policy coordination between the public good and private good to mitigate the pandemic shock. The second session discussed structural transformation and relief packages to restore the resilience of the global value chain (GVC). 

H.E. RATH Saravuth, Director General of International Trade at Cambodia’s Ministry of Commerce opened the session by highlighting the importance of ERIA’s Capacity Building workshop to equip Cambodian officials with a better understanding of the pandemic’s impact at the regional and global level. He also discussed Cambodian priorities for exploring policy responses around economic recovery strategies, especially with upcoming major events, including the 13th ASEM Summit at the end of 2021, the 40th ASEAN Summit and related meetings for the Cambodian ASEAN Chairmanship, in 2022 in mind. 

Mr Anthony Samson, Second Secretary, Australian Embassy in Cambodia also delivered opening comments, noting Australia’s commitment to support the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework (ACRF) Initiative by strengthening bilateral and regional cooperation with the ASEAN Member States. Mr Jeremy Gross, ERIA’s Director of Capacity Building, moderated the workshop. He reaffirmed ERIA’s strong support for pandemic crisis mitigation at the regional level through a series of capacity-building activities.