An electronics production line in Vietnam (Illustrative image. Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Southeast Asia has surpassedChina to become the region most likely to produce the best investment returns,as the ongoing trade war between China and the US puts a chill on the world’ssecond-largest economy, according to a survey at the recent Asian FinancialForum 2019.
About 39 percent of respondents viewed SoutheastAsia as having the best investment returns, while 35 percent voted for Chinaand 16 percent for the US.
Reporting on the survey, the South China MorningPost noted that last year, about 55 percent of respondents to a similar surveysaid China would offer the best investment returns in 2018.
The Hong Kong newspaper cited statistics in 2017which showed that the foreign direct investment (FDI) poured into ASEANcountries increased to a record of 137 billion USD, 14 billion USD higherversus 2016.
In a report announced in November 2018, threeASEAN member nations, namely Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore, made up around72 percent of the FDI flow into the bloc.
Raymond Chao, chairman for PwC audit firm inAsia-Pacific and Greater China, said Vietnam was another hotspot identified ina recent PwC poll of chief executives at Asia-Pacific companies.
“We surveyed CEOs across the region where theywanted to put their money in the next 12 months. For two years in a row,Vietnam has come out on top,” he was quoted by the newspaper.
The South China Morning Post also said accordingto economists, the US-China trade war is likely to hurt some ASEAN economies,but if they could take advantage from this conflict, they could get benefits.
Many foreign companies have moved theirproduction facilities from China to ASEAN to avoid high taxes from the US.
For Japanese businesses, the trend of shiftingto ASEAN is expected to last for many more years, focusing on manufacturing,infrastructure building, and services.
In 2018, ASEAN still made progresses inimplementing five economic arrows outlined by Singapore, ASEAN Chair during theyear, thanks to reasonable adjustments in economic policies. The five economicpriorities are promoting innovation and e-commerce; further facilitating tradeactivities; increasing services and investment integration; creating favourablelegal environment; and enhancing extra-bloc relations.
In 2017, the combined GDP of ASEAN reached 2.8trillion USD, a year-on-year rise of 5.3 percent, which was higher than the 4.8percent recorded in the previous year.
Experts forecast the bloc’s GDP growth will bemaintained at 5.1 percent and 5.2 percent in 2018 and 2019 respectively.-VNA
VNA
