AN ONLINE poll among members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore has found that the country's biggest investors, the US multinational corporations, are impressed with how the Coronavirus outbreak has been handled here.
These US businesses, which have collectively sunk more than US$244 billion in Singapore, also continue to have confidence in the country as a business hub despite the disruptions caused by Covid-19.
They have found the disruptions manageable; hardly any are pulling out their expatriate staff and "very few" are laying off workers.
The poll of 225 firms was carried out between Feb 12 and 18.
Nearly four in five of the firms reported that the perception of the local situation is worse outside Singapore than in it; they said what they see on the ground is in fact "more under control" than outsiders think.
Virtually all the respondents (98 per cent) ticked "Yes" to the question: "Do you still have long-term confidence in Singapore as a business hub?"
One reason for this confidence comes from the government's response to the outbreak. Almost all (97 per cent) of the firms polled said the government has been effective in providing health and safety updates; 79 per cent said it has made the right moves to deal with Covid-19's potential economic impact.
Some 21 per cent of the firms reported they were hit in Singapore by Covid-19 "to a great extent"; 57 per cent "somewhat", 18 per cent said "not very much" and 4.0 per cent, "not affected".
As expected, those in the travel and hospitality business are the most affected, with 88 per cent of them reporting "extensive or moderate" impact", both in Singapore and in the wider Asia-Pacific region.
Some 94 per cent of the firms in this sector expect the outbreak to depress their revenues this year. In total, 72 per cent of the firms polled expect a fall in revenues this year.
Three in five of these companies have cancelled large-scale meetings or events.
Though it is still early days, most of the firms polled said they are refocusing their business strategies for the rest of this year. Just under half (47 per cent) are enforcing temporary or permanent changes to their human resource or flexible-work policies.
Only one in 10 reported temporary or permanent layoffs or salary cuts. Just 5.0 per cent have already repatriated expatriate staff because of Covid-19, or are likely to do so.
While the spread of fake news on Covid-19 and the impact it might have is still worrying, companies are largely confident that it would not affect their reputation at this time.
CREDIT: Chuang Peck Ming
Copyright © 2020 Singapore Press Holdings
This article was written by Peck Chuang from The Singapore Business Times and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.
