News Snapshot:
This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on May 17, 2021 - May 23, 2021. - A + A In the first quarter of 2020, major companies were predicting that 2020 would be another bumper year for profits. Asean’s growth rate was predicted at a high 5%, double the global average. Yet by April 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic raged on, Asean’s growth rate had shrunk to 1%, the lowest in Asia. As more countries paused economic activity for public health reasons, companies suddenly saw their revenue dry up. They went from boasting that profits would last...
