The experiences of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar in managing the Covid-19 pandemic provide interesting insights and lessons, not just for the developing world but for any country trying to handle a major crisis under binding constraints. Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are the newest and poorest members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). All three are transitional economies and are classified as least developed countries by the United Nations. In 2022, Laos had the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (in current US dollars) among the three at US$2,088, followed by Cambodia (US$1,786) and Myanmar (US$1,096). The low level of income and the early stage of development in each of the three countries created their own challenges in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, but there were also a number of positive factors, both inherent and policy-related, that helped each deal with this major health and economic crisis. This essay surveys the key challenges they faced and how they dealt with them while examining how the advantages possessed by each of the three countries helped in the overall management of the pandemic. Drawing lessons can help governments to tackle the next crisis, health-related or otherwise.

As least developed countries, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar were already struggling to address social and economic challenges to try and close a multi-dimensional development gap even before the pandemic arrived. When the pandemic struck in early 2020, they had to try and deal with it with severely constrained fiscal resources compared to other ASEAN countries. This meant that their fiscal stimulus programmes were limited and social safety nets incomplete and wanting. Figure 4A.1, panels A and B show that Laos and Myanmar were unable to implement any significant fiscal stimulus at the start of the pandemic when lockdowns were introduced. In per capita terms, spending on fiscal stimulus averaged only about US$1 in both countries. The situation in Cambodia was slightly better, with per capita spending averaging about US$13. This was a result of significant improvements in resource mobilization (particularly tax revenue collections) in recent years, but both the share of GDP and per capita spending were still below that in many other countries. The limited social safety nets affected the poor badly, especially those working in the informal sector, and limited fiscal space constrained the ability of governments to keep businesses afloat during the economic downturn.