Time to restrategise

Changing landscape: Workers welcome customers at a shopping mall in Bangkok. Thailand is mulling reopening its door to international tourists through travel bubbles. — Xinhua

THE ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to service industries in Asia-Pacific countries, with tourism, catering and retailing sectors being hit the hardest.

Apart from providing direct financial subsidies to help these sectors survive, governments in some countries have been proactively guiding their enterprises and labour forces on developing new business approaches and skill shifts to adapt to the “new normal” of this difficult time.