Increasing supply chain resilience in Asia can help blunt the worst effects of climate change, improve biodiversity and closed-loop thinking, and even help eradicate the scourge of modern slavery.
Asia, especially China’s Pearl River Delta (PRD), with its vast and specialized supply chains is known as the workshop of the world. International sales of products like integrated circuits, smartphones, computers, autos and auto parts, and textiles from all of Asia make up a staggering 42 per cent of global exports, a share that has risen four per cent since 2016, despite threats of supply chain localization from overseas. In 2022, work stoppages due to COVID disrupted shipments of iPhones, Toyotas, and Volkswagen cars from the PRD, reminding the world that supply chains are only as strong as their weakest link. Typhoons, man-made disasters, the threat of war, tsunamis, earthquakes, and epidemic disease are but a few of the challenges Asian companies have faced since the century began. The world is running up against resource limits – especially with water and carbon – that put even simple business models at risk.
Increasing supply chain resilience in Asia can help blunt the worst effects of climate change, improve biodiversity and closed-loop thinking, and even help eradicate the scourge of modern slavery.
