Tuesday
July 21
2020

How Fintech Can Help South-East Asia’s MSMEs Recover From COVID-19

By Benedict Carandang and Lee-Anne Tobias

COVID-19 is putting millions of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Southeast Asia in peril. This may be one of the biggest tragedies resulting from this pandemic given the size of the sector in the region.

As a result of COVID-19, the IMF World Economic Outlook projects GDP will fall to negative 6% for five of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The Asian Development Bank forecasts ASEAN GDP growth to be just 1% in 2020.

MSMEs are considered crucial to the future economic success of many South-East Asian countries. MSMEs had been growing rapidly in the past decade owing to thriving environments, they account for almost all of the establishments in South-East Asia and contribute between 52% to 97% of employment in the region.

Photo courtesy of truk.

Source: World Economic Forum (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Coronavirus, Finance
Tags
fintech, MSMEs