SINGAPORE: With the world emerging from the crisis of a generation that is COVID-19, there is a strong desire globally — including in Singapore — for businesses and their leaders to be more active advocates and work with governments on social issues such as inequality, discrimination and climate change.
The survey, which was released on Wednesday , had asked respondents what they expect chief executive officers to do on five societal issues of treatment of worker, climate change, discrimination, wealth gap and immigration. On another measure, 79 per cent of respondents in Singapore believe that CEOs are"obligated to pull advertising money from platforms that spread misinformation", compared with a global average of 71 per cent.
Around the world, the Edelman survey found that people want more engagement from businesses, not less. Over half of the respondents said that business was not doing enough to address climate change. Half said that businesses were not doing enough to address economic inequality and energy shortages. Respondents were also asked if businesses can avoid being political when they address contentious societal issues. In Singapore, a majority agreed that businesses can do so. This was not the case universally, with less than half of the respondents agreeing with the statement in 19 of 28 countries surveyed.Overall, the survey indicated declining trust in governments around the world, with exceptions in China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, India and Indonesia.
Nevertheless,"government and business working in partnership" was deemed by respondents in Singapore as the approach most likely to result in constructive action on societal issues — 43 per cent picked this approach, higher than"government and business working independently" ,"government only working alone" and"business only working alone" . This is comparable to global findings.