Deloitte providing coronavirus support for communities in ASEAN and beyond
Professional services giant Deloitte has leveraged the weight of its global footprint to provide a number of community support measures in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic – including in Southeast Asia.
Global professional service giant Deloitte – with over $46 billion in annual revenues the biggest of the Big Four – has to date committed more than $12.5 million around the world in the form of direct monetary donations, medical equipment, and pro bono project work in an effort to support the community response to the devastating global coronavirus pandemic, including through a number of initiatives across Southeast Asia.
According to the firm, its coordinated and multi-pronged global response – leveraging the weight of an international footprint spanning more than 150 countries with a headcount in excess of 310,000 people – is aimed at addressing the significant and growing needs of impacted communities around the world, with the measures targeted at supporting frontline healthcare workers, ongoing education efforts, and direct social support.
“Rarely in our 175-year history have we encountered a crisis of this magnitude that has impacted so many so severely,” said Deloitte Global CEO Punit Renjen, who has been at the firm for more than three decades. “We are using all of the tools we have – financial contributions, in-kind donations and pro-bono project work – to help our people, our clients and our communities respond to this crisis and get back on the road to recovery.”
Broadly, Deloitte has been supporting the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund along with other organisations to provide critical support and supplies to frontline workers, provided critical educational and financial support for students and educators through its WorldClass initiative, and has directly donated or mobilised its employees to deliver basic needs such as food and housing to those in need.
More specifically at the regional level, the firm has in Singapore raised over S$100,000 to date for the non-profit Engineering Good to ensure every child in need is equipped with a laptop for their home-based learning during the school closures, as well as had its staff help to distribute hand sanitisers to residents in the various housing estates island-wide, an exercise supported by the Temasek Emergency Preparedness Fund.
In Indonesia, Deloitte is raising funds through the Dana Kemanusiaan Kompas foundation to provide the necessary supplies for frontline healthcare workers who have struggled with a shortage of personal protective equipment and inadequate medical supplies, while in Vietnam the firm has donated close to $30,000 in cash and essential items that has led to the provision of 15,000 medical masks for frontline workers and those most at risk.
Among other countries, Deloitte has also been engaged in relief activities in the Philippines and Brunei, both to support communities at risk and aid containment efforts, as well as in China, where at the start of the outbreak it mobilised 600,000 pieces of protective medical supplies to support medical professionals in Hubei province, the initial viral epicentre, as well as for use in 28 designated hospitals and several other quarantine sites.
“The pandemic has brought to the fore the communities in the region that are less privileged and unable to cope in such exceptional times,” said Deloitte Southeast Asia CEO Philip Yuen. “As a business with a presence in every Southeast Asia country, we know that we have a critical role to play, and an opportunity to give back, by helping the people of the countries in this region navigate this challenging. Together, we can fight COVID-19 and emerge stronger as a region.”