GETTING MICRO SMEs ONLINE
SME Magazine Singapore|Issue 34, 2021
As the Covid-19 Delta variant unleashes a storm over Southeast Asia, the region’s SMEs are desperately trying to hold on. Just when we thought the first two waves were challenging, the third wave of COVID-19 has produced more economic disruption and dramatically higher cases and deaths.
THOMAS PARKS AND HANNAH NAJAR
GETTING MICRO SMEs ONLINE

With hundreds of millions of Southeast Asians under lockdown measures, and recovery of the tourism sector a distant prospect, many SME owners are facing the ultimate decision – find new ways to conduct business or close down.

It is too early to tell how many SMEs will not make it through the pandemic. However, recent data from Asia Foundation surveys of SMEs in five countries illustrate the pressure that many are facing. In Thailand, 54 percent of the SMEs we surveyed in January (during the second wave) indicated that they were at high risk of closing down. Across the region, more than half of all SMEs surveyed were either completely closed or had closed their premises to customers during 2020. Given the third wave is a much longer and deeper crisis, this situation is likely to be much worse now.

Why does this all matter? SMEs in ASEAN employ nearly 80 percent of the workforce, or roughly 280 million people. If SMEs collapse under the strain of months-long demand contractions, we will see a generation of poverty reduction wiped out. And, it will take years to recover to 2019 levels of economic activity.

ADAPTING TO DIGITAL: AN ESSENTIAL BUT ARDUOUS MOVE

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Issue 34, 2021 من SME Magazine Singapore.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Issue 34, 2021 من SME Magazine Singapore.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.

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