THE COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global foreign direct investment climate especially on inward investments. Even the world’s most robust markets like China and the United States are not spared.
Governments and private businesses are beset with a myriad of problems. Different actions and solutions are thus considered to mitigate these challenges and ensure long-term growth and sustainable development.
Commenting on the COVID-19 outbreak, China’s President Xi Jinping said the pandemic is a major public health emergency that has become “difficult to contain”. Chinese media firm Xinhua quoted President Xi admitting: “This is both a crisis and a big test for us.”
Further, the Chinese leader declared that “efforts are being made to reduce fatalities, cure citizens, safeguard social stability, and strengthen the country’s [China’s] emergency medical supplies and day-to-day necessities.”
Oxford Business Group (OBG), a distinctive research firm and respected provider of on-the-ground intelligence on many of the world’s fastest growing markets, notes: “As a result, what happens in one market can – and increasingly does – have a direct impact on others, often on the other side of the world. Globalization has come under major scrutiny in the years since the financial crisis, but it seems to be here to stay; how to equitably spread its benefits is actually the question that should be exercising us.”
On the Philippine front, Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) director general Brigadier General Charity B. Plaza, MNSA, posted on her Facebook page: “PEZA’s registered IT/BPOs operating in the present ECQ and GCQ period, is 62 percent nationwide, 64 percent in Luzon, 72 percent in the Visayas and 100 percent in Mindanao, the highest work force continuously working from home and a skeletal at their main IT centers. The IT/BPO companies provide a million jobs to Filipinos and increasing, as PEZA embarks on the creation of more economic zones in the countryside in consonance with the Balik P[r]obinsya program and A.O. 18 issued by President Duterte, spreading the Ecozones, industries, the transfer of technology and development of idle lands in the countryside.”
Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) has been likewise affected by the crisis as much as major conferences set for 2020 have been either postponed or cancelled, thus, severely affecting the travel industry, including hotels and a number of service support contractors. Necessarily, all these have directly impacted economies of host cities. Note, some of these key events have been organized many years ago.
A number of start-ups that have performed well during the implementation phase of social distancing and Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) measures bring dynamic opportunities and hope to investors notwithstanding uncertainties, while the changing global investment milieu is expected for greater collaboration and renewed risks evaluation.
Given these, drawing from foresight and insight, business leaders ought to create innovative strategies and translate these into actions with tangible results. Organizations must have plans that have both guided direction and flexibility. The economic dilemmas brought about by the COVID-19 crisis should be seen and considered as “opportunities in disguise”, so to speak./PN
