重复navirus disruption puts spotlight on nations in 2020 FM Global Resilience Index

As the coronavirus disruption affects nations around the world, the insurance firm FM Global recently released its 2020 Resilience Index, examining economic indicators, risk factors and supply chain issues in nearly 130 countries around the world — ranking the nations and sections of some countries by the resilience of their business environments.

“The pandemic of 2020 has tested the resilience of businesses across the world,” the company said in its executive summary. “While pandemic risk is not explicitly measured in the2020 FM Global Resilience Index, the resilience of a country’s business environment is a reliable platform for businesses trying to rebound from the impact of the coronavirus.”

Norway kept its top position this year, followed by Switzerland and Denmark. The least resilient business climates were seen in Haiti (ranked last at No. 130), then Venezuela at No. 129 and Ethiopia at No. 128.

The United States and other large nations are divided into zones based primarily on the severity of natural disaster risks and local political factors.

The U.S. central zone (roughly the Southwest up to Idaho and across to the mid-Atlantic states) ranks No. 9 — the same as in2019’s index. The U.S.’s east zone (The East Coast, the South and Texas) ranks 10^ththis year, improving one spot from 11^thin 2019. And the west zone of the U.S. (Alaska, the West Coast states and a few others) fell one spot, from 22^ndto 23^rd.

China’s zone 1 (eastern coastal areas) improved to 68^thfrom last year’s rank of 73^th. Its zone 2 (a northern area, an east-coast district and a southern area) ranked 74^ththis year vs 77^thin 2019. And China’s zone 3 (the bulk of the nation’s interior) improved to 65^thfrom its rank of 68^thlast year.

Russia stayed ranked at 53^rd.

“This evaluation allows (executives) to prioritize where they should focus their risk management and investment efforts,” the FM Global report said. “It can also inform decisions about where to locate new facilities.”

The index compiles 12 economic, risk quality and supply chain drivers (see chart below) to gauge the business resilience of the evaluated countries.

(click image to enlarge)

Taiwan saw a major improvement, climbing six places to 29^thplace based on “improvements in its natural hazard risk quality and quality of its infrastructure,” according to a press release, which said Nicaragua dropped nine places to 121^stbecause of its “political risk and cyber risk as well as decreased control of corruption.”