The leading investment
promotion blog site

I have just come back from a brief trip to the Asia Pacific region: Japan, Thailand and the Philippines to be precise.  I worked in the Philippines and Japan between the mid 80’s and mid 90’s and visited Thailand countless times in my days as an insurance executive. As a regional Director I returned from time to time but had not been back for four years so I was keen to find out how things had changed, especially in these recessionary times.

In recent years my forays into the region have taken me mainly to India and China. Many trade and investment agencies, in common with private sector companies, have focused exclusively on these two giants to the detriment of the other Asia Pacific economies. It is true that all organisations need to focus on a manageable number of territories but Japan in particular, which after all is still the world’s second largest economy, is rarely given the attention it deserves; still less countries like Malaysia and Korea.

In my view a contributory factor is that most IPA’s have a sectoral rather than geographic focus. The sector specialists very often have little or no international experience and they stick to a handful of territories – the “safe bets” which won’t raise any eyebrows in the corridors of power. Or am I being too cynical?

So back to my trip. The government in Japan is in a precarious position (nothing new there!) amidst news of a dramatic 47% fall in exports and companies laying off staff or reducing working hours. And yet walking the streets of Tokyo and Osaka you’d hardly know there was a recession going on. Most Japanese companies escaped the excesses of the sub-prime debacle in the USA and many are using the downturn as an excuse to downsize – something that is normally difficult to achieve in Japan. 2007 and 2008 were record years for the flow of Japanese outward investment and whilst 2009 won’t match last year’s peak the strong yen is bound to fuel continuing M&A activity.

The news from Thailand, one of the ASEAN tigers, is not that rosy. The recent political unrest has seriously impacted the tourist industry, such an important component of their economy. There are some amazing bargains to be had in the shops! Thai companies, CP in particular, have had a lot of success in Asia but I have always felt that they should be making greater inroads into Europe.

I have a soft spot for the Philippines but the Filipinos will agree with me that they have underperformed to their potential over many years. However, I was very impressed with the new development I saw and the way in which they have successfully positioned themselves as an outsourcing centre to rival India. The trump cards they have always held are their fluency in English, their academic excellence and natural friendly exuberance; all excellent attributes in that industry.

There is no room in this blog to go into any more detail but if you are interested in finding out more about these fascinating markets don’t hesitate to get in touch.