THE government rolled out an online survey for big companies to assess the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the lockdown on their businesses, which will help the state craft programs for the affected sectors.

Via Twitter on Sunday, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in coordination with the Department of Finance (DoF), posted the online survey titled “Enterprise Survey for the COVID-19 Impact in the Philippines” urging companies to participate with the assessment.

“ADB is conducting a rapid survey on companies in the Philippines to assess the impact of COVID-19 on your business and explore possible assistance to firms devastated by COVID-19,” the survey read.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said the survey is part of the government’s effort to assess the impact of the nationwide crisis on large companies, which will help them craft a “good program for their industry.”

“To develop an appropriate and targeted program to assist the various sectors of the economy negatively affected by the fallout of the response to the contagion,” Mr. Dominguez said in a Viber message to reporters on Sunday.

ADB said the survey takes around 30 minutes to complete.

The Manila-based multilateral lender also assured that all information that companies will share in the survey will be “strictly confidential and utilized only for aggregate analysis without individual identity.”

Socioeconomic Planning Acting Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua earlier said the government was planning another round of surveys this month that will include large enterprises.

“Response is voluntary, but if companies want to help us develop a good program for their industry, they should seriously consider completing [and] submitting the survey,” Mr. Dominguez said.

The National Economic and Development Authority has conducted three surveys with about 44,000 responses. The surveys assessed the impact of the pandemic and enhanced community quarantine on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises; agriculture and fisheries; and consumers.

While official results are not yet available, Mr. Chua earlier said that the surveys showed businesses had suffered some P700 billion in losses because of the quarantine. — Beatrice M. Laforga

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