Why should we, as business leaders in Asia, focus our time and resources, which are in short supply, on HIV/AIDS? Although we may find the link between our various businesses and HIV/AIDS difficult to make, there exist four crucial reasons why HIV/AIDS is an issue for all business:

1. Transmission of HIV is rapidly increasing in Asia
2. Lack of awareness and understanding of HIV results in fear and negative attitudes
3. HIV infections most often occur in people aged 15 – 49
4. Greater knowledge may help an individual make choices that will prevent transmission.

HIV/AIDS has a direct impact on the productivity of companies:

*AIDS Is Your Business, HBSWK, Feb 24, 2003

With the increase of HIV/AIDS in the region, the opportunity for exposure to the disease is increasing. Misunderstanding the disease results in fear among employees and managers and causes conflicts in the workplace by stigmatization, discrimination and mismanagement of affected employees. And, finally, those individuals most likely to contract HIV/AIDS are the heart of the productive body of our work force.

Therefore, it can be clearly shown that AIDS has a direct impact on business due to increased costs, loss of productivity, and the overall threat to the economies in which business operates. HIV/AIDS is a bottom-line issue that impacts a company’s economic, social and human resource interests and it should therefore be managed as any other business issue in the workplace.

HIV/AIDS affects the profits of companies through direct costs and declining economies:

• Direct costs: With an increasing number of employees falling sick, companies have to bear the rising costs of health insurance, sick leave and funeral benefits, as well as recruitment and training of replacement staff.
• Declining economies: As the demand for goods and services decreases due to the impact of HIV/AIDS, companies will be forced to re-evaluate their position in the regional market. Declining economies will result in decreased investment and are a threat to organizational long-term viability.

HIV/AIDS has a direct impact on the productivity of companies:

• Increased absenteeism: In addition to missing work due to illness, workers must care for ill family members, and prepare and attend the funerals of family and friends.
• Staff turnover: Operations are increasingly focused on the training of replacement employees due to illness and death.
• Low morale: Workers must deal with the deaths of co-workers, family and friends disrupting the continuity in the workplace and the community at large.

The growing HIV/AIDS pandemic within the region is affecting companies in Singapore as many operate in the developing regional markets everyday. Singapore is viewed as a hub with short and extended-term business travel to many of the areas where HIV/AIDS is reaching epidemic proportions: China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, and Vietnam. This travel provides greatly enhanced opportunity for exposure. By 2010 it has been estimated that China will have 10 – 15 million HIV infected individuals, while India will have 20 – 25 million individuals. These numbers make the recent SARS outbreak look benign and we all understand the cost impact on the region’s business caused by the initial outbreak in 2003.

As a business issue in Singapore and, more broadly, in the region, HIV/AIDS has only started to make an impact, therefore HIV/AIDS education makes good business sense now. Fear can easily be prevented through education and good planning of management responses. At the individual company level, lack of awareness and understanding of HIV/AIDS can result in workplace conflicts, management disruption and unsuitable organizational responses. Only by educating our employees and ourselves can we potentially reduce the financial impact, legal implications, work disruptions, and other affects that this preventable disease will have on our businesses.

Many U.S. and other multinational employers are currently implementing or have already been successful with their workplace programs in Singapore and the region. They include:

• The Body Shop
• Levi-Strauss
• Porcupine
• Standard Chartered Bank
• Chevron Texaco.

Many others are members of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS and the Asian Business Coalition Against AIDS. As part of their programs, all of these companies are committed to sharing their lessons learned with others in the business community. As companies contemplate their response to this crisis, there are many of these resources available to help combat this dreaded disease.

If the fight against HIV/AIDS in Asia is to be effective and sustainable, an active role by the private sector is critical, to supplement the efforts of governments and NGOs. We in business possess valuable resources that with a little effort can be easily focused and cost-effectively utilized. These resources include financial resources, management and marketing skills, facilities, and access to our workers and staff. Mobilizing these resources in a region where there are many resource-constrained countries will help prevent further economic and social damage and possibly avert the loss of the very assets that the success of our companies depend on….our employees.

AmCham wants to encourage your company to put in place in Singapore:

1. Clear HIV/AIDS policies that are made know to all employees
2. An HIV/AIDS employee education program.

The key to fighting this disease is education and dealing with it in the open and with compassion.

APPENDIX

When discussing the HIV epidemic, we immediately think of Sub-Saharan Africa and the decimation caused there by the disease. However, it can be clearly seen in the numbers from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 2003 that there are emerging and growing epidemics in Asia Pacific.

• People with HIV: 4.6 – 8.2 million
• Percentage of world’s HIV cases: 17.8%*
• New cases in 2002: 0.61 – 1.1 million
• Aids deaths in 2002: 330,000 – 590,000

• People with HIV: 0.7 - 1.3 million
• Percentage of world’s HIV cases: 2.8%*
• New cases in 2002: 150,000 - 270,000
• Aids deaths in 2002: 32,000 – 58,000

And Singapore is not exempt from the crisis. Although the incidence of reported HIV cases is relatively low, the number of new cases reported by the Health Ministry (Nov. 2003), despite years of public education, continues at about the same level – 201 in the first 10 months of 2003, 234 in 2002, 237 in 2001, and 226 in 2000. Some 2,034 Singaporeans have been infected since 1985 and 776 have died. Of the 201 cases reported in 2003, nine in 10 were men, most of whom were heterosexual and infected through casual sex or sex with sex workers. About 63 percent of the cases were 30 to 49 years old – the core business human asset, arguably, the most productive in a company’s talent pool.