Archive for October, 2005
Companies Across Asia Bracing For Bird Flu Pandemic
SINGAPORE : Just two years after the SARS outbreak sent Asian economies into intensive care, companies across the region are bracing themselves for the vastly more malignant threat of a bird flu pandemic.
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis of 2003 killed about 800 people out of 8,000 cases and cost regional economies an estimated 18 billion dollars, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The hardest hit were Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia.
Travel-related industries were the most severely affected by the disease, which was spread by air passengers from China and Hong Kong.
On the other hand, an avian flu pandemic has the potential to kill millions worldwide and affect all economic sectors.
The ADB says in the Asia-Pacific region alone, the economic cost of a bird flu pandemic could exceed US$250 billion.
At the moment, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says the bird flu threat is still in the third of six phases, with over 60 deaths recorded in Asia since 2003 and rare instances of suspected human-to-human infection.
Phase 6 is the doomsday scenario - the full pandemic phase with sustained human-to-human infection in the general population.
“Phase 3, where we are now, is kind of the warning phase. It’s out there, we know it’s out there, we really have to pay attention. We have to plan,” said Dr Jeffrey Staples, senior medical advisor to emergency services firm International SOS.
“My guess is that at Phase 5, governments will probably impose international travel restrictions,” he told AFP in an interview.
“So what this gives us is a window of opportunity whereby we can consider moving people around in Phase 4,” he said, referring to the possibility of relocating expatriate corporate staff out of affected countries.
“Phase 3 is probably too early to move people, but it’s not too early to think and to start planning in a holistic way.”
With the virus now confirmed to have spread into Europe, companies across Asia are preparing emergency plans for a pandemic which is widely assumed to be only a matter of time.
Contingency measures ranging from free Vitamin C pills for workers and taking poultry off the canteen menu to costly evacuation plans for expatriate staff and their families are being drafted by companies.
Nestle Malaysia said it was in the process of drafting a bird flu contingency plan, with guidance from local authorities and its headquarters in Switzerland.
Shell Malaysia said the group’s “contingency planning, initially in some 50 countries, is well advanced”.
In China, Charles Zhang, public relations manager of Procter and Gamble in the southern province of Guangzhou, told AFP all staff had been urged to “pay attention to their personal health and bird flu prevention measures”.
Procter and Gamble, which has 5,000 employees in China, one percent of them expatriates, is not stockpiling masks or shoe gloves and so far has no alternate plans for transport in case supply chains become bottled up.
There are no evacuation plans at the moment.
Neither does the group have any stocks of anti-viral drug Tamiflu because in China, people needed to go to hospitals and get prescriptions from doctors, Zhang said.
Tian Geng, spokesman for Kodak China in southeastern city of Xiamen, said the company has a special department “which has done a lot of work during SARS and has special medical knowledge”.
In Indonesia, about 4,500 workers at PT Sierad Produce, an integrated poultry company, are given Vitamin C tablets with their daily meals, said the company’s president director, Eko Putra Sanjoyo.
“Since the outbreak of avian influenza in Indonesia, we have been improving biosecurity aspects in our farms as well as for our workers,” Sanjoyo said.
Sierad operates its own feedmills, breeding farms and fast-food restaurants. It also produces chicken nuggets and supplies around 70,000-100,000 slaughtered chickens daily to chains like Wendy’s, McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Sanjoyo said he spends around two billion rupiah (US$198,000) annually on flu shots for his workers and has installed “backup” teams to replace key corporate officers and farm workers should they be infected with bird flu.
In Vietnam, where most of the bird flu deaths have been reported, a human resources official of Toyota, which employs 800 people in Vinh Phuc province, said that in 2003 “we published a prevention manual that was used during the SARS epidemic, and it is still effective now”.
“We provided workers with masks, antiseptic mouthwash, nose drops and ordinary flu tablets. We sterilised our plant regularly. During the epidemic, workers entering the workplace must pass a sterilised carpet at the entrance.
“At present, we have excluded poultry and poultry products from our menu.”
Medical advisor Staples of International SOS said that “multinational corporations are still struggling to understand the full scope of a pandemic and the full threat to business continuity”.
“Think of it just as a matter of scale. SARS killed about 800 people and the numbers the WHO is throwing out (for bird flu) are in the millions, possibly more. Just on that level, it’s several orders of magnitude greater.”
“It’s a fundamentally different virus with a different epidemiological pattern so if it goes pandemic, it will probably spread more quickly and kill more people, and it’s just going to be on a completely different scale than SARS was,” Staples said. - AFP /ch
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Ex-Performance Motors MD Fined S$300,000 For Corruption
SINGAPORE : Marc Singleton, the ex-managing director of Performance Motors, has been fined almost S$300,000 for taking bribes.
On September 21, Singleton was convicted on one charge of accepting bribes of S$78,000 from car distributor Teo Tian Seng to reappoint the company as a BMW dealer.
On Thursday he pleaded guilty to three other outstanding charges of accepting expensive watches from Teo.
Another 10 charges of accepting watches, handphones, and S$3,000 as gifts were taken into consideration.
Performance Motors is the distributor for BMW cars in Singapore. - CNA /ct
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Demand For Car Sharing On The Rise Despite Lower COE Prices
SINGAPORE : It’s not the end of the road for car sharing, despite prices of Certificate of Entitlements (COE) hitting a low recently.
Car sharing and rental companies say demand has been on the rise as car sharing becomes more popular.
The companies are also taking advantage of the low prices for new cars to expand their fleet.
Taliv Mo has been a loyal car sharing user for the past four years, saying it is fuss-free with no insurance, car park or maintenance hassles.
And he is not about to turn car owner even with the low prices of cars and COEs.
“Look at the hidden costs of getting a car, like car park, rising fuel, registration, tax, accident insurance, if you want to think long term,” said Taliv Mo.
“I’ll just go for car sharing, own the car for three hours instead of responsibility for three years,” he said.
Another plus is companies clean the car for users.
Salbiah Manan spends about $200 monthly taking the car every weekend for family use.
She says lower car prices and COEs have still not convinced her to buy one.
“We did our calculations and found that it still makes economic sense to continue with car sharing than buying a car. And we don’t need to pay for any expenses, just pay as we use,” said Salbiah Manan, who uses the car sharing scheme.
Car sharing and rental companies also report brisk business, with 80% of cars already booked for the upcoming Deepavali and Hari Raya holidays.
Demand for car sharing has also been growing - 40% annually over the past five years.
Ho Kok Kee, general manager of Popular Rent A Car and WhizzCar said: “The fall in prices may tempt some people to buy a car but this forms only a small percentage of customers, about 10%. So overall, I don’t see a significant impact,”
Car sharing companies themselves are cashing in on the low car prices.
WhizzCar is adding another 50 new cars while NTUC Income’s Car Co-op, the biggest player in the market, will expand its fleet by 45 cars to reach 200 soon.
“Whether COE is $1 or $100,000, there are still Singaporeans who cannot get a car or don’t see the need for a car,” said Lewis Chen, general manager of NTUC Income Car Co-op.
So even if COE prices continue to head south, car sharing companies are optimistic and confident that the car sharing market will grow bigger.
Under the car sharing scheme, users first have to sign on as members with one of the car sharing companies.
There are four such operators in Singapore - including NTUC Car Co-op, WhizzCar, CitySpeed and Honda Diracc.
For about $120 a year in membership fees, you can make your bookings online or call to use a car.
The charges will depend on the type of car chosen, duration of rental period and the distance travelled.
The minimum usage is an hour, and costs an average of $8 to $9 for the first hour.
- CNA /ls
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