Results from the World Economic Forum’s 2019 Executive Opinion Survey indicate that environmental risks are the leading concerns for doing business across East Asia and the Pacific, with “natural catastrophes” ranking first and “extreme weather events” ranking fifth. The concerns about “natural catastrophes” were heavily driven by responses from Japan and New Zealand, where they ranked first, while in Indonesia and the Philippines they ranked third. The devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Indonesia in September 2018, and the flash floods that hit Japan earlier that year, are just two cases of increasingly frequent natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific that stress the need for strengthening resilience against future catastrophes (1).
For the report’s insights on climate change and natural catastrophes, click the link below.
Regional Risks for Doing Business 2019 >>
Note: 1. Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), Natural Disasters Report, 2018. https://www.cred.be/publications. (link as of 21/9/19).