SMEs adapt to survive as Covid hit turns to long-term business risks in endemic

Singapore

WHEN the first signs of a global pandemic emerged in early 2020, businesses in Singapore recalled their past experience with the Sars outbreak in 2003 and braced for possibly a few months of border closures and disruptions.

Few of them could have predicted that the impact would end up being far worse, with worldwide country lockdowns, manpower shortages due to shut borders, supply chain disruptions and month after month of restrictions on business operations.