The 36th ASEAN Summit will take place on June 23 in Vietnam against the backdrop of severely damaged business and investor confidence as an impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Containing and mitigating the spread of the pandemic is the current priority of all ASEAN member states, along with a concerted effort to shore up public health systems.

As countries around the world debate how quickly they might reopen their economies after lockdown, some ASEAN countries like Vietnam are largely ahead of the curve. Vietnam ended on April 22 its nationwide social distancing campaign that shut down nonessential businesses and life has returned to a striking level of normalcy within a month, with no reported infections.

Other ASEAN countries are taking up similar containment and recovery strategies as they unveil economic stimulus packages of unprecedented size, scale and scope. But these actions also come with a huge and unavoidable economic cost.

While many people face the risk of loss of life, a great many may face a loss of livelihood. Companies are facing a loss of income across all sectors. Many of them are downsizing and laying off workers.

A deep recession is unavoidable. Economists predict that this pandemic presents a systemic economic challenge of much greater gravity than either the 1997 or 2008 financial crises, and its impacts are expected to last longer.

While individual countries are making strenuous efforts to successfully contain their outbreaks, there are serious flaws in international cooperation strategies. Since the emergence of COVID-19 in December 2019, countries have been acting in almost complete isolation from one another. It was not until March 25, 2020, that the United Nations launched a US$2 billion global response plan to fund the fight against the pandemic.

It is unclear how ASEAN, as a regional block, either endorsed the UN plan or is benefitting from it. On April 14, the ASEAN Plus Three leaders meeting committed to establishing an ASEAN COVID-19 Response Fund, but the details and composition of individual contributions have yet to be defined.

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