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It is time to prepare for the next pandemic and Asia is leading the way. How we can prepare for future events outside of our control? 

Take note of how Asia is quickly adapting

  • China’s Ministry of Education deployed a national cloud-based classroom platform to support remote learning for 50 million students simultaneously.
  • Digital consumption has taken off as well. In South Korea, the online retailer Coupang shipped a record-high 3.3 million items on January 28, and SSG.com’s food-delivery sales rose by 98 percent
  • China released 1 trillion renminbi (around $142 billion)—1 percent of GDP—to build public infrastructure and redeployed the labor affected by the demand destruction that the containment measures caused

 

There is no doubt that COVID-19 is redefining our global economy. It’s time to think and plan for businesses and the future of how things are going to be done.  With the widespread pandemic, our personal and digital privacy may be affected: nations have thought about using surveillance and medical data to monitor outbreak clusters and using phone apps to track movement to enforce quarantines. 

Quick Summary: 

  • Asia has a history to come through crises much stronger than before. They are very resilient to disruption and have learned how to prepare for future crises.
  • Concerns about digital and personal privacy will continue to vary. There may be more usage of surveillance and medical data to monitor outbreak clusters, track movement in order to enforce quarantines and safety of the people. 
  • Companies are taking great responsibility for keeping people employed or for redeploying labor when possible. 
  • New technology is important for all aspects of life, e-commerce, remote working, and learning tools.
  •  Preparing resources at speed and scale.

Currently, countries are making sure that supply chains are ensuring a fair distribution of groceries and household essentials to consumers. Consultations with doctors, e-commerce, remote working, learning tools, and digital consumption have all increased due to this pandemic. With more people at home, online promotions are being amped up by brands to capture demand. With this pandemic, government policies are having to be implemented quickly, along with getting the proper resources for healthcare systems. The world’s dependence on global supply chains is a weak link, especially for commodities with a concentration around what now seems to be vulnerable nodes. We could see a restructuring of supply chains, making production and sourcing move closer to end-users, and companies to localize or regionalize their supply chains. Overall, we have to consider this our new normal, as some of these practices will become a permanent fixture.