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Asean firms squeezed at home, undercut abroad, by Chinese rivals
There are no easy solutions but the region needs to engage China and guard against its surging exports.
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Workers at a shoe factory for export in Hanoi. The diversion of export-oriented supply chains from China to Asean, including Vietnam, is one of the second-order effects of US tariffs on China.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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During the period January to September 2024, an average of 274 food and beverage (F&B) businesses in Singapore shut down every month, according to the consultancy Knight Frank. That number was more than 60 per cent higher than even in the Covid-19 year of 2020, when 170 F&B businesses closed on average per month as eating out all but stopped in the face of pandemic restrictions.
One of the reasons for the high attrition rate last year – which may well continue – was the spread of F&B establishments from China, which are now ubiquitous across food courts and even entire streets, such as Mosque Street and Pagoda Street in Chinatown. Many of these have displaced local eateries.
