Survey Launch: The Impact of COVID-19 on Foreign Businesses across ASEAN

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruptions of business operations all across the ASEAN region.  To understand the changing needs of US companies in the region, AmCham and ERIA created a rapid survey in April 2020 to understand the evolving needs of US companies in Indonesia. Five months later, the two institutions joined forces again to implement a similar survey providing a more in-depth investigation of how foreign companies in ASEAN have been responding to COVID-19 and what plans they have moving forward.

Twenty-four chambers and business organizations representing foreign companies were involved in the implementation of this survey. 264 firms with operations in ASEAN responded to 26 questions about the impact of COVID-19 on their business operations.

On 30 November, AmCham Indonesia and ERIA had an informative web session to discuss the findings from the report and provide an outlook for 2021. AMCHAM’s CEO Siobhan Das participated in a panel discussion along with Sunit Dhoka, Country Representative, Cargill Indonesia and Dionisius Narjoko, Senior Economist, ERIA moderated by Lin Neumann, Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia.

The panelists talked about how businesses and countries were affected by the pandemic, the changes that had to be made, and what should be observed in the following year.