Writing in The
New Economy, our Head of APAC says that for those looking to
expand their international business, there's never been a
better time to look east.
Asia has been a dominant economic force for nearly 2,000 years
and, in 2013 (for the second year in a row), continued to be the
region with the highest foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows,
accounting for nearly 30% of the global total.
Asia's significant growth has largely been at the expense of
the EU – traditionally the region with the highest share of
global FDI – which saw its share fall from 42% in 2007 to
just 17% in 2013. A major part of this growth has been fuelled by
the significant increase in FDI to Southeast Asia and specifically
the ASEAN-5: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and
Thailand. Indeed, in 2013, for the first time, FDI flow to this
group overtook that to China; the ASEAN-5 received $128.4bn
compared to China's $117.6bn.
