Jakarta (VNA) – Investment in technology is the top investment priorityfor small enterprises in Southeast Asia this year, according to a survey.

This priority applies even to small businesses that face cash flow concerns, the United Overseas Bank (UOB) and Dun & Bradstreet said in a joint release on July1.

The release cited findings from a survey by the UOB, Accenture and Dun &Bradstreet in the third quarter of 2019 and in May 2020, which polled 1,000small businesses with an annual turnover of 20 million USD and below in fivecountries - Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Technology was ranked the top investment priority for 2020 by 64 percent ofbusinesses surveyed, followed by investments in developing employees' skills(51 percent), and in machinery or equipment (40 percent).

Among the five countries polled, Thailand had the highest proportion (71 percent)of respondents prioritising technology investments this year, followed byIndonesia (65 percent), Vietnam (63 percent), Singapore (60 percent) and Malaysia(59 percent).

Besides, small businesses from the food and beverage, information andcommunications technology and healthcare sectors (50 percent) indicated thestrongest desire to boost their technology investments, followed by those inconstruction (48 percent) and retail trade (46 percent).

Although 88 percent of businesses had lowered their revenue expectations in2020, 44 percent said they still planned to increase their overall technologybudget.

This suggests that small businesses in Southeast Asia are looking beyond thepresent challenges and are set on adopting technology to improve their competitivenessand sustainability, according to the release./.