Governments and Business

This chapter evaluates the deleterious effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on business enterprises in Asia. In these extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances, it was not surprising that governments stepped in to forestall a collapse of markets brought about by the simple fact that ordinary life had been disrupted. Beyond liquidity and stimulus measures taken by central banks that feature in many past recessions, many Asian jurisdictions saw unprecedented provision of financial support and measures to businesses and individuals to tide them over and lessen the risk of insolvency. These measures included temporary moratoriums on financial obligations and debt recovery, relief from other contractual obligations, employment support, increases to the debt thresholds for the commencement of insolvency proceedings, and infrastructure investments. These extraordinary measures, if effective, had the potential to become part of an expanded standard playbook to deal with future economic shocks, and the chapter focuses on them with particular reference to China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore.