Getting businesses on board SGSecure a timely move

THE findings of the World Economic Forum's executive opinion survey on the top global risks to business in 2017, released a week ago, by and large reflect the biggest concerns of the day in each region.

Hence, high unemployment and fiscal crises emerged as the top worries for business leaders in many parts of the world, notably Europe, while those in North America and East Asia were most concerned by cyberattacks and asset bubbles. The spectre of terrorist attacks also worried executives in North America and the Middle East and Northern Africa, but failed to make it to the top five risks among business leaders in the other regions, the survey noted. And here, the responses from Singapore to the WEF poll - which reached more than 12,000 business leaders across 136 countries earlier this year - make an interesting exception.

While Singapore executives, like others elsewhere, cite cyberattacks, asset bubbles and data fraud/theft among their top concerns, the No 1 risk on their list is "terrorist attacks". The only other major country whose business leaders also have terrorism top of mind as their biggest threat seems to be the United States; in Germany and France, for instance, terrorism emerged only as the second biggest risk, behind cyberattacks and unemployment respectively.