MEF conducted the third survey on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic from 19 April – 1 May 2020 to obtain feedback and comments from members with regards to the preparedness of companies to business continuity during MCO and CMCO.

The survey findings showed that:

• Some financial measures that have been adopted by respondent companies as part of their overall business risk and continuity plan by the respondent companies included:
• Implementing cost containment measures (69.0%)
• Deferring or cancelling planned investments (44.0%)
• Changing company financing repayments and deferments (41.3%)
• Review and closure of non-performing outlets (14.8%)
• Initiation of rent negotiations with landlords (40.0%)
• 64.5% of the respondent companies have responded rapidly and robustly to maintain business continuity by activating their incident management teams to manage the business disruptions while 63.4% of the companies have activated their strategic crisis management teams to oversee strategic business changes caused by the impact of COVID-19.
• As a step to strengthen overall preparedness in the face of supply chain disruption, the respondent companies have adopted the following measures:
• Identify a list of critical suppliers in response to COVID-19 (69.8%)
• Review the business continuity plans of key suppliers to ensure continuity of service (65.9%)
• Prioritise suppliers for review based on operating location (56.5%)
• Contact suppliers who are currently not required (43.5%)
• Move to source goods from local suppliers (45.6%)
• Appoint additional suppliers to ensure continuity of goods (40.8%)