Standard Chartered: ASEAN to continue growing in 2015

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will continue to grow in the fast lane, an outperformer with upside potential, said Standard Chartered Bank.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will continue to growin the fast lane, an outperformer with upside potential, said StandardChartered Bank.

Edward Lee Wee Kok, the bank’s regional head ofresearch for Southeast Asia, said ASEAN has consistently outperformedglobal growth and grew two percentage points faster than the averageglobal growth from 1980-2013.

With an ASEAN Economic Communityscheduled to be in place in 2015, intra-ASEAN trade is set to benefitfrom this, Lee said at the Standard Chartered's Global Research Briefing2015 in Kuala Lumpur on January 12.

Standard Chartered's specialreport on ASEAN revealed that intra-ASEAN trade has more than tripledsince 2000 to 295 billion USD in 2013 -- a compound annual growth rate(CAGR) of 9.3 percent.

The region has a combined gross domesticproduct (GDP) of 2.4 trillion USD, making it the world's eighth-largesteconomy, it said.

The report showed potential for this trade corridor to grow further as ASEAN economies continue to register economic growth.

Factorsdriving this growth include greater ASEAN economic integration, risingwealth, economic development, urbanisation, improving infrastructure andrising productivity, according to the report.

On foreign directinvestment (FDI), ASEAN attracted nine percent of global FDI in 2013,more than China, and has grown at a CAGR of 15 percent since 2005.

China's loss of cost competitiveness is incentivising a shift in investment from China into ASEAN, it said.

Investorsare attracted to ASEAN's cost-efficient labour supply, improvinginfrastructure, trade pacts, supportive investment environment, regionalstability, rising wealth and rapid economic growth, it added.

Lee also highlighted that as of 2013 only about 46 percent of the ASEAN population was urban.

Urbanisationcan be a strong growth driver. ASEAN's urbanisation can boostinfrastructure development, as the region is still relatively rural, hesaid.

Lee also cited the bank’s report, saying that ASEAN's GDPper capita may more than double to 8,500 USD in 2030 from 3,900 USD in2013, based on recent urbanisation trends.

On population, he saidASEAN's population was set to rise by more than 10 percent to 690million by 2020, and its labour force was expected to grow by 70 millionby 2030.-VNA

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