WITH global supply chains again fractured amid escalating geopolitical tensions, many Singapore small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) leaders turned to their familiar survival plan: the 2020 pandemic playbook.
The strategy is deeply ingrained: wait and see, absorb the initial cost spikes, tap into government grants and wait for global trade to normalise. But treating today’s geopolitical disruption as a replay of Covid-19 could be a costly miscalculation.
The pandemic was largely a one-off supply-side shock cushioned by unprecedented fiscal intervention, such as loans and wage subsidies.
