Recently, FrontierView hosted 22 APAC Vice Presidents and Chief Financial Officers of major multinationals for a discussion on Asia Pacific’s macroeconomic environment. Unsurprisingly, the standout topic was China and its prevailing zero-COVID strategy, which Beijing has committed to pursuing for the foreseeable future. While FrontierView scenarios carefully detail the reasons China is unlikely to reopen until at least Q3 2023, many executives were hoping for an earlier timeline.
So many multinationals rely on China as a major source of revenue growth both for the region and for the global portfolio. As a result, recent lockdowns have been devastating for their businesses and have created an unprecedented level of uncertainty around operations and the prospects for growth. So much so, that broader questions regarding overall market stability are starting to surface, an unthinkable topic just a year ago.
While a good debate on recovery dynamics and drivers helped to outline several potential futures, the outcome of the discussion was a tacit agreement that the timelines outlined by FrontierView are the most likely outcome. Since that session and with the reality of the situation setting in, companies have started to ask new questions around portfolio management. Where are the additional growth opportunities across the region? How do I message new expectations to corporate? How can we manage our talent? Should we delay investments in China, or pursue additional investments outside the country?
Many of these questions require input from corporate counterparts, demonstrating that the China problem is not just an APAC issue. Companies will want to align internally on their strategy for the market and start to think about the broader implications of China’s zero-COVID policy for their portfolio over the next 12–18 months. Using a scenario approach can help to narrow the parameters for discussion when many potential opinions are involved.
At FrontierView, our mission is to help our clients grow and win in their most important markets. We are excited to share that FiscalNote, a leading technology provider of global policy and market intelligence has acquired FrontierView. We will continue to cover issues and topics driving growth in your business, while fully leveraging FiscalNote’s portfolio within the global risk, ESG, and geopolitical advisory product suite.
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