2)With business activities in China slowing down as some towns and cities are put under lockdown, analysts have claimed that many economies globally that consider China their trade partners would feel the pinch? Can you give some examples of those feeling the pinch?
Those with supply chains that rely heavily on products or components from China will be hit, we have noticed that tourism has been directly impacted, this we expect to pick up by the second half of the year as hotels and airlines will be passing out some great packages. Many of the conferences have quickly shifted the dates to the second half of the year.
The Technology sector and the manufacturing of the hardware components, have been affected as some parts are not available even if your factory is another country. By extension the logistics sector has been impacted.
This crisis, is in fact an opportunity for Malaysia as companies with global supply chains now look to diversify to avoid this “Single Point of Failure” in their supply chains. Malaysia should be working overtime to attract those companies to look at investing in Malaysia as a production centre.
At the same time companies or industries that rely too much on China as a source of customers are going to be hit the most. Private education has been impacted across Asia especially in those countries which have large numbers of Chinese students.