How are geopolitics affecting businesses across Southeast Asia?

Amidst US-China tensions and the Ukraine-Russia conflict, we partnered with The Straits Times to launch a survey with N=1,200 business leaders in the Southeast Asian region to understand sentiments about the current geopolitical climate and the extent to which it is impacting businesses.

Our COO, Stephen Tracy, was on Straits Times' Work Talk podcast to share key findings from the survey alongside Mr Kurt Wee, president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, and Ms Dora Hoan, CEO of Bestworld International.

• 59% of business leaders surveyed said that their companies have been affected by international geopolitical events ‘somewhat’ or ‘to a great extent’. This is highest in the Philippines (68%) and Vietnam (68%)
• Companies are impacted mainly by ‘Disruptions in supply chain’ (44%), ‘Decline in demand’ (40%) and ‘Deterioration in business outlook’ (34%
• In Singapore, businesses with operations outside of the local or Southeast Asian markets tend to be impacted by ‘Reduced access to markets’; results from the other markets also follow a similar pattern
• 44% Singapore business leaders said that their businesses are “Equally dependent on both US and China economies doing well”, higher than the regional average of 28%
• Business leaders in the region foresee these concerns occurring in the next 12 months: ‘Increase in prices of raw materials/commodities’ (59%), ‘Increase in oil/energy prices’ (51%) and ‘Decreasing customer demand’ (45%).
• 66% said that their ‘company/business does not have the means to navigate around the issues that can potentially arise from international geopolitical events.’ - this is lowest in Singapore (52%) and Indonesia (61%), and highest in the Philippines (72%) and Vietnam (75%)

Tune into the podcast or read the full article here.

Methodology:

Based on Milieu Insight surveys with N=200 business leaders who make or influence key business decisions each from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, conducted from 26 August to 7 September 2022.