HIV/AIDS Taskforce Luncheon Comments
Deputy Chief of Mission John Medeiros
March 22, 2004
Thank you, Gordon.
We in the U.S. Embassy warmly support and encourage Amcham in its initiative on HIV/AIDS. We are all fortunate that this organization has great experience in connecting people. AmCham is uniquely placed to help local businesses find the resources they need to create an effective workplace program for HIV/AIDS awareness.
Multinational businesses – American businesses – have played a seminal role over the last three decades in introducing a wide range of modern business practices to Asia. In today’s Asian economies, technological standards are higher, occupational safety standards are stricter, compensation practices more modern, environmental practices more benign and human resources policies more forward-looking where multinational firms have brought their global practices to Asia. Now its important that global best practices on HIV/AIDS come to Asia as well. Multinational corporations have learned already that HIV can cost them dearly when it begins to affect their workforces. With effective workplace programs, companies can prevent an increase in labor turnover, absenteeism and healthcare costs, a decrease in productivity, loss of experienced personnel and the need for increased resources to hire and train replacements. In sum, workplace HIV/AIDS programs make good business sense. They are good for employee morale, and good for the bottom line.
And they are necessary, in Singapore as well as in the other countries of this region, because the problem is growing. There has been a tendency in Asia – as well as in other parts of the world, it is true – for AIDS to be thought of as “someone else’s problem.” Well, “someone else’s problem” has arrived in Asia, and it’s coming to Singapore, too.
Let me talk about Asia first. This continent is 10 years behind Africa, but the infection curves are rising dangerously fast. It is estimated that an additional 45 million people worldwide will become infected with HIV between now and 2010. More than 40% of these infections are expected to be in Asia – double the current rate. By 2010, the snapshot of the world’s typical AIDS victim will cease to have an African face – she will have an Asian one. China will have 10 million people living with AIDS by that year. Asia will have more people living with HIV/AIDS than will Africa, and India will surpass South Africa as the country having the most people with HIV/AIDS. And I said “she” when I referred to the typical AIDS victim because the disease is spreading in Asia largely through heterosexual contact, and women make up more than half of those living with AIDS. So AIDS is not an “African problem,” and not just a disease of drug addicts, gay men, or sex workers, although these groups are particularly hard hit.
And it is not a disease that Singapore – or businesses in Singapore – will be able to avoid. One of the lessons of the SARS epidemic is how easily diseases spread across national borders. One of the glories of this country is its open atmosphere and cosmopolitan population – Singaporeans travel freely and mix well throughout Asia. But that means Asia’s problems – whether they be crime or drugs or disease – become Singapore’s problems too. Singaporeans are bringing home the HIV virus, and as the problem grows in surrounding countries, it will become more severe here. Data, unfortunately, is patchy, because testing is not widespread in this part of the world, but it seems to indicate the formation of HIV “hot spots” in those parts of neighboring countries (like Bali, Batam and Johor) which are precisely the areas most frequented by Singaporeans. The disease may be on the verge of “taking off” and doing so in complete silence, with as many as ten years elapsing between infection and development of symptoms. One ominous sign is rapid increases in some of the most vulnerable populations: the Malaysian Red Crescent society reported a 50% increase in “walk-in” HIV-positive people from 2001 to 2002, and in Indonesia one specific study found HIV prevalence at a Jakarta drug treatment center rose from 15% in 1999 to more than 40% by mid-2001.
Well, by now the warning bells should be ringing in your ears. The good news is that some countries have shown that effective action can greatly slow the disease’s spread. Thailand is the best example, having established well-funded, comprehensive prevention programs that received support from both the worlds of politics and business. Later in this program you’ll hear from Tony Pramualratana of the Thailand Business coalition against AIDS, which represents one very successful aspect of the business community’s work in Thailand.
Governments also have an important role to play. The U.S. Government under President Bush's leadership takes the HIV/AIDS pandemic very seriously. The President has asked for record levels of funding for domestic care, prevention and research. He has outlined a 5-year, $15 billion, multifaceted approach to combating the disease. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is the largest international health initiative ever dedicated to a single disease.
And up at the Embassy, we are taking seriously our responsibilities as a large employer of Singaporeans as well as Americans. We have recently launched our own enhanced HIV/AIDS workplace program, which includes not only HIV prevention and counseling, but also workshops to educate all our staff about the disease. We’re sending teams to our neighboring posts in KL and Brunei to help them, as well. We hope that multinational businesses based in Singapore will join us in viewing this problem as a regional one, and in taking action now. AIDS feeds on ignorance and fear. When people lack knowledge of how infections can be prevented, and when those infected are stigmatized and driven into the shadows, the virus thrives, and hope withers. Workplace educational programs will help to re-ignite the flame of hope and fight the spread of this deadly virus.
Denial is pointless. In every country with a serious AIDS epidemic today, people once said “It can’t happen here. We don’t have the behaviors that spread AIDS.” They were wrong. It is too easy to be complacent, when no one appears visibly sick. And too easy to look the other way, when other problems seem more urgent. It is precisely the “invisibility” of this disease that makes it so insidious. And the stigmatization that makes it so difficult to address.
But we have to overcome these obstacles. The HIV/AIDS pandemic threatens lives and livelihoods, governments and businesses, hard-won achievements of the past and cherished hopes for the future. Secretary of State Colin Powell tells of a company in Sub-Saharan Africa that has to train three workers for the same job to insure that at least one of them will remain healthy and have some longevity in that company. The same scenario could easily be repeated in Asia if we do not take action now.
So applause to Amcham for having the foresight to tackle this problem head-on. And best wishes for the success of this initiative.
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Following are some useful links:
US-Singapore Relations
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement
