Impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on Small and medium sized enterprises in China and the economies of East and Southeast Asia

Introduction

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the driving force for all economies and China and Southeast Asia are no different to the rest of the world in this respect. For example, in China there were over 140 million SMEs and self-employed in 2020. Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) accounted for 98.5% of all firms. SMEs represent a fundamental part of the economy, contributing to over 60% of total GDP, 50% of tax income, 75% of job creation and 68% of exports (OECD 2022).

The Russian-Ukrainian war is a high-profile conflict that has directly and indirectly effective millions of people and SMEs across the globe. Whilst there is a growing range of literature investigating the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on economies in general there are few that focus on China and Southeast Asia. The aim of this special edition is to better understand how the Russian-Ukrainian war has impacted SMEs in China and Southeast Asia in terms of their abilities to export and import from Russia and Ukrainian and the wider impact on supply chains and international trade. These aims will be achieved by publishing a range of theoretical and empirical papers that address these issues.

List of topic areas

• SMEs
• International trade
• Conflict
• Global supply chains
• Economic links between Russia and China