Singapore ranks #1 in APAC digital resilience, but regional benchmark reveals execution and ecosystem gaps

A new study benchmarks digital resilience across 14 markets. The findings show Singapore ahead of its regional peers, yet gaps in workforce preparedness, leadership ownership and ecosystem governance remain a shared challenge across APAC.

More than eight in 10 (84%) APAC business leaders surveyed believe that stronger digital resilience gives their organisation a competitive edge. Yet, fewer than one in four say their responses to real disruptions actually go according to plan.

A 2026 report by Economist Impact, supported by Telstra International, surveyed 1,420 senior executives across 11 APAC markets alongside benchmarks from the US, UK, and Germany to assess how prepared organisations truly are for digital disruption.

The results pose a reality check for Singapore, which ranks first in APAC in the region with a composite score of 53.65 out of 100. Singapore leads on risk management (60.82) and workforce and cultural agility (55.95), but scores notably lower on the external enabling environment (45.65), the weakest of any market surveyed.

Across APAC, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines trail the pack, still focused on building foundational risk and technology controls. Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong sit in the middle tier, with strengths in regulatory infrastructure but weaker performance on leadership accountability and ecosystem readiness.

Plans exist but fall apart under pressure

The survey results showcased how organisations actually respond when disruption hits. While most have formal digital resilience strategies in place, only 23% of respondents say their incident responses went mostly as planned. A further 57% said things went only partly to plan, and 19% said responses diverged largely from what was expected.

The top reason, cited by 66% of respondents, is inadequate scenario planning. Departmental silos (39%), bureaucratic decision-making processes (39%) and underestimation of threats (36%) follow close behind.

Quoted in the survey report, Mihaela Isac, Chief Information Officer, APAC, DHL Supply Chain, points to a structural gap that many organisations overlook. "Predefined plans are no longer sufficient as disruptions are too varied and fast-moving," she says.

"We need to combine clear governance and well-tested playbooks with the flexibility for teams to make context-specific decisions in real time,” she added.

That kind of adaptive readiness is still far from standard across the region. Most APAC organisations track risks no more than annually or on an ad hoc basis, and just 8% monitor more frequently than quarterly – which potentially leaves them poorly positioned against fast-moving threats.

Resilience frameworks are too narrow

When it comes to what is formally covered in risk management and business continuity planning, the picture skews heavily towards the familiar.

Nearly all surveyed organisations (96%) include cybersecurity threats in their resilience frameworks, and IT and infrastructure failures follow at 75%. However, regulatory and compliance risks drop to just 29%, and supply chain and third-party digital dependencies despite being a growing source of real-world disruption are addressed by only 27% of organisations.

Climate and environmental risks fare worst of all, formally included by just 13% of organisations, even as extreme weather events continue to threaten power supply and data centre operations across the region.

Supplier visibility is another weak point. In APAC, only 12% of organisations have direct visibility into the digital resilience of key suppliers through system access or regular audits. The vast majority of 73% rely solely on partners' self-reported data and certifications. By comparison, 27% of US organisations conduct regular partner audits, more than double the APAC average.

"What works better is a risk-based approach. This means going deeper with your most critical partners, and move away from one-off audits to something more continuous, with shared standards and regular information exchange," shared another interviewee in the report, Clemens Philippi, Chief Executive Officer, MSIG Asia.

Who actually owns resilience?

One of the most pressing findings in the report concerns accountability at the top and how often it is missing.

While 84% of APAC leaders acknowledge resilience as a competitive advantage, shared ownership remains limited. Responsibility typically falls to a single function, most often IT (47%), rather than being distributed across the C-suite. This pattern is especially pronounced in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Singapore.

Board-level engagement is even more concerning. Only 28% of organisations say their boards regularly review the effectiveness of digital resilience plans. When board or executive discussions do take place, just 39% result in follow-through or action.

Eugene Huang, Chief Information Officer, DBS, cited in the report, shared: "In the absence of strong external enablers, organisations must work hard to ensure their own resilience foundations are solid."

Resources also tell a story of underinvestment. Only 21% of organisations have a full-time digital resilience team, and just 52% have dedicated budgets allocated to resilience initiatives.

Where workforce preparedness runs out

When it comes to workforce preparedness and where it is lacking, the results noted that most organisations across APAC provide regular training in cyber hygiene (95%), data privacy (78%) and crisis communication (73%). However, these programmes tend to focus on awareness and compliance rather than the adaptive behaviours that matter when systems actually fail.

Less than one-fifth of organisations mandate training in cross-functional crisis coordination (18%), and fewer still require training in adaptive decision-making under pressure (12%) or team adaptability during system outages (11%). As highlighted in the findings, these would be the capabilities that determine whether an organisation holds together or fractures during a real incident.

AI readiness is another gap. Just 44% of organisations provide regular or frequent guidance to staff on the safe use of AI, even as the technology becomes embedded in day-to-day operations. The majority of 54% do so only occasionally at best.

Talent and collaboration gaps compound the challenge

The report also flags a concern particularly relevant to Singapore and other talent-constrained markets. Only 21% of APAC respondents express confidence in the availability of digital talent with the right skills and experience. Singapore sits at the same level. This is well behind Japan at 51% and South Korea at 41%.

Cross-sector collaboration fares worst of all external resilience enablers, with only 22% of respondents across APAC viewing it as adequate. Singapore's figure is just 13%, the lowest in the entire study.

The bottom line for people leaders

The report suggests that the next phase of digital resilience in APAC will depend on how effectively organisations move from planning to execution, particularly in responding to disruptions that extend beyond organisational boundaries.

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