SMEDA & ADBI Conduct Survey to Assess Impact of COVID-19 on Businesses

In response to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), the Asian Productivity Organization (APO), and the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) have carried out surveys to grasp the business status of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) since early 2020. In January/February 2022, SMEDA & ADBI are conducting a follow-up survey to trace the evolving business situation. The collected data will be analyzed statistically by APO and ADBI and only the anonymous, aggregated results will be published by them. SMEDA has assured SMEs that the data they receive will be treated as strictly confidential and will never be used for any other purpose. In this survey, enterprises have been asked about their total annual sales revenue in the years 2020 and 2021 as compared with that in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak. The survey also asks about the impact of COVID-19 on employees and whether employees of the firm decreased or increased during this period. Other questions are regarding how many months the enterprise operated in years 2019, 2020, and 2021, and what do owners and managers do to maintain their businesses, impact on cash flows and raw materials. The survey also asks regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the online sales of the company. The survey will assess the impact of COVID-19 on SMEs/businesses and its results will be used to guide ADB and the government in exploring possible assistance to SMEs devastated by COVID-19.