"Resilience is never more critical than in a world shocked by a pandemic." That statement by FM Global emphasizes how now more than ever, strong, well-established economies provide the foundation for businesses to rebound post-COVID-19. In its annual FM Global Resilience Index, FM Global ranks nearly 130 countries by the resilience of their business environments, including the countries' economic, risk quality, and supply chain resilience. "A country's ranking in the 2020 FM Global Resilience Index is a good indication of how its business environment will fare and how quickly organizations there might rebound after taking the economic blow of the coronavirus," Kevin Ingram, executive vice president and chief financial officer of FM Global, said in a statement. "These are critical insights for businesses making far-reaching choices as they build facilities, extend supply chains, and cultivate new markets." In addition to providing insight into the post-pandemic business landscape, the Index serves as a reminder of how more traditional business risks, such as natural catastrophes, cyber and political unrest, continue to threaten operations, says FM Global. In the slideshow, we spotlight the ten most resilient nations of 2020, according to FM Global's Global Resilience Index.

'Notable improvements'

In 2020, FM Global did see some notable improvements year-over-year for a handful of countries, Steve Zenofsky, an FM Global spokesman, told PropertyCasualty360. Notably, 'inherent cyber risk' declined for seven nations, including Canada, Australia, Austria, Sweden, France, Switzerland, and the Kyrgyz Republic, whose cyber risk rank improved from 84 in 2019 to 34 this year. Additionally, the 'corporate governance' ranking for all three of China's regions increased from 98 to 74 in 2020, "indicating greater scrutiny of auditing and accounting standards, conflict of interest regulation and shareholder governance," says Zenofsky. (The Index subdivides both the U.S. and China into three regions because of their geographical spread and different natural hazard exposure.) Taiwan showed the most improvement in 2020, with its rank climbing six places to 29. Specifically, Taiwan's enhancements in the quality of its infrastructure and natural hazard risk contributed to its upgraded rank, suggesting "FM Global engineers saw more properties being better protected year-over-year," Zenofsky notes. Related: 

• Global recession, high unemployment among top risk concerns, report finds
• Ways to stress test your insurance business for coronavirus impact
• 2020 and beyond: Risk management considerations of top global threats