Asian companies adopt strategies to cope with mystery illness

HONG KONG Rising alarms over a deadly flu-like illness are prompting many companies in Asia to reduce or cancel business travel - and many executives have responded by wheeling and dealing through germ-free teleconferencing calls, e-mail and the Internet.

By (AP)

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Published: Thu 3 Apr 2003, 12:48 PM

Last updated: Wed 1 Apr 2015, 7:35 PM

"Funny you should ask, I was just in a Net meeting when you called," said Mary V. Lam, Hong Kong-based regional spokeswoman for US telecommunications company Motorola Asia Pacific.

"We're using virtual or online reporting for most offices. Basically, it's business-essential travel only," Lam said Tuesday.

Analysts say that if the disease - severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS - keeps spreading, economic growth in the region will suffer this year. Businesses in infected areas are already seeing scattered disruptions - and some such as airlines and hotels are experiencing scary drops - but most are finding ways to cope as best they can. Motorola was obliged to temporarily close a factory in Singapore last week after one of its workers was diagnosed with SARS, which has killed at least 62 people worldwide, mostly in Asia.

The victim's fellow workers at Motorola in Singapore were ordered into quarantine and the factory was disinfected. It has since reopened and the worker has recovered, Lam said.

There have been few known instances so far of the medical crisis disrupting manufacturing operations, and the advent of modern telecommunications is likely to help ease disruptions from the curtailment of business travel.

"If you're a large bank, you can do a lot of your business on the phone and the Internet," says David O'Rear, chief economist at the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce. "Ten years ago, this could have had a devastating impact compared to what we may or may not suffer today."

Hong Kong's biggest bank, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp., and other smaller banks have taken emergency measures to ensure that operations can continue even if employees contract the disease.

Standard Chartered, Hong Kong's fourth-largest bank, has been encouraging employees to avoid face-to-face meetings, said Lavina Chan, a spokeswoman for the bank that so far has no confirmed cases among workers.

Chan said the bank had also activated a so-called "business continuity plan."

"All mission-critical staff are working on a split-team basis so that if a number of employees in one particular department get the disease, we can still keep the business running," Chan said. Throughout the region, companies have announced measures intended to minimize risk of exposure to SARS.

DBS bank in Singapore suspended all travel for its employees after discovering that one of them at a branch of a Hong Kong subsidiary, Dao Heng Bank, was confirmed to have SARS.

Dao Heng and other major Hong Kong banks suspended operations at branches near Amoy Gardens, an apartment complex where the government imposed a 10-day quarantine Monday after reporting around 200 cases of the disease. Regionally, companies with operations in China were drawing up emergency plans. Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chip maker, asked families of employees working in Hong Kong to return to South Korea, company spokesman James Chung said.

LG Electronics Inc., a maker of home appliances and mobile handsets, has done the same.

"We've also urged our employees working in Shanghai, Thailand and Toronto to refrain from traveling on business for the time being," said spokesman Chu Byung-Ho. Taiwan personal computer maker Wistron Corp., a supplier for Hewlett-Packard and Acer, said it was requiring staff making necessary trips to China to travel via Tokyo instead of the usual route through Hong Kong. Those returning from China are being asked to undergo a medical check before returning to their homes or offices.

Medical care, along with housing and education, have always been major concerns for international businesses operating in Asia, says Bob Broadfoot, managing director of the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy. "What you've got now is an extreme situation," he said. "It's an immediate situation where individuals have to take action."

Broadfoot said he had postponed trips to Indonesia and China because of the crisis. "I'm not flying. I can't afford to be out of the loop if I get stuck in quarantine at some airport," he said.


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