What is ASEAN?

ASEAN is an acronym for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The Association is founded in 1967 and is comprised of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

In recent years, the region has become an investment hotspot, because of the following reasons:

1. Its size – ASEAN bloc boasts to have a population of 600 million, with a combined GDP of USD 1.8 trillion. It would have been the 9th largest economy in the world had it been one country itself.
2. Its free-trade agreements – ASEAN bloc has free-trade agreements within the nations themselves, which reduce the tariffs for trade to zero within the bloc. It has concluded free-trade agreements with China, India, Japans, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and more. The ASEAN-China agreement sees more than 7,000 products exempt from customs duties, and the ASEAN-India agreement enables 90% or more of the products exempt from tariffs.
3. The Pan-Asia economic prospect– Due to the structural factors of the entire Asia, such as the change in demographics, the increase of disposable income, the increased urbanization and the increased spending power of the rising middle class, Asia is set to be the drive of world’s economy. The set up of ASEAN facilitates the integration within Asia by promoting intra-regional trade.