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  • Malaysia: The Surprise Winner From US-China Chip Wars

    Tension between Beijing and Washington over access to technology has prompted many companies to open factories in south-east Asia. Mercedes Ruehl, Financial Times As companies around the world look for a back-up to China to protect themselves from geopolitical disruptions — a strategy known as China plus one — Malaysia is becoming a surprise investment destination. It has a 50-year history in the “back end” of the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain: packaging, assembling, and testing chips. But it has ambitions to move up to the front end of a $520bn global industry that powers everything from televisions to smartphones and electric vehicles. That includes higher-value activities such as wafer fabrication and integrated circuit design. The broadening US curbs on Chinese technology, especially for chipmaking, are a key reason for neutral Malaysia’s appeal, say industry groups. America is jostling with China for global technology supremacy and has enlisted support from allies in Europe and Asia as it restricts sales of the most advanced chips and manufacturing equipment to its geopolitical rival. Investment is booming. The state attracted RM60.1bn ($12.8bn) in foreign direct investment in 2023, more than the total it received from 2013 to 2020 combined. Developing Malaysia’s semiconductor industry and workforce into this higher-value manufacturing is a “critical goal,” says Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in an interview with the Financial Times. VIEW ARTICLE #trade #globaltrade #fdi #investment #economy #economicdevelopment #policy #government #foreigninvestment #asia #asiapacific #asean #investment #development #investmentpromotion #climate #genderequality #sustainabledevelopmentgoals #capacitybuilding #digitalization

  • Amid China tensions, Australia and ASEAN must iron out hard issues to preserve regional stability

    The Australians recognise the need to step up. As part of a suite of initiatives announced at the recent special summit, Australia will establish a A$2 billion (US$1.32 billion) facility to boost investments to Southeast Asia. Over the past five decades, the strategic relationship between Asean and Australia has evolved significantly. Marked by deepening cooperation and partnership across a broad spectrum of issue areas including security, economic development, education and cultural exchange, this relationship is underpinned by shared interests in promoting regional stability, prosperity, and addressing transnational challenges. Both the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Australia are part of various bilateral and multilateral frameworks aimed at enhancing regional architecture and fostering a conducive environment for open dialogue and mutual benefit. Australia now recognises Asean’s centrality in the Indo-Pacific. Yet even after the recent 50th anniversary celebrations at the Asean-Australia Special Summit held from March 4 to 6, Asean and Australia continue to face heightened risks as the international order veers towards multipolarity amid polycrisis. Asean member states are wary of the upgrading of US formal alliances and the advent of minilateral groupings such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (comprising Australia, Japan, India and the United States) and the trilateral Australia-UK-US (Aukus) arrangements. These trends intensify the risk of conflict between US-led alliances and groupings versus China. To Asean, the rationale is clear: such US-led minilaterals could undermine its centrality and any cooperation with these minilaterals would rile China. While the member states cannot wish away minilaterals, they can nevertheless leverage these arrangements to their national benefit and regional stability. Asean is Australia’s second-largest trading partner, but Australia is only the bloc’s eighth-largest trading partner. Asean’s share of Australia’s total trade in goods was 14.6 per cent in 2022, whereas Australia’s share was only 3.4 per cent. Australia is also an FDI featherweight, with total foreign direct investment to Southeast Asia declining from 6.3 per cent in 2017 to 2.9 per cent in 2022. The Australians recognise the need to step up. As part of a suite of initiatives announced at the recent special summit, Australia will establish a A$2 billion (US$1.32 billion) facility to boost investments to Southeast Asia. Along with the Asean-Australia-New Zealand free trade agreement upgrade signed at the summit and Canberra’s keen interest in pursuing cooperation in the green economy, sustainability, climate, food security and digitalisation, there is promise of renewed relevance coming to the Asean-Australia economic relationship. VIEW ARTICLE

  • McKinsey: Southeast Asia Quarterly Economic Review: Proving Resilient

    In the fourth quarter 2023, the economies of Southeast Asia mostly showed strong resilience to counter the challenging external environment and continue its growth trajectory. Southeast Asia’s economies exhibited robust performance in the fourth quarter of 2023. GDP grew in all economies, with growth in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam increasing during this period, while Malaysia and the Philippines recorded slower growth. Strong domestic demand, backed by stable employment prospects and easing prices, along with a continued recovery of the services sector—particularly tourism—and early signs of improvement in exports demand supported growth. FDI grew broadly in the region with the Philippines, particularly, seeing a spike of 127.2 percent from the same period a year before. Indonesia experienced the softest growth since the third quarter 2020 as investors took a wait-and-see approach ahead of the general elections in February 2024. VIEW ARTICLE

  • WEF Gender Equality: The Social Innovators Empowering Women Worldwide

    Gender parity globally has now recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels, but the pace of change has stagnated as converging crises slow progress, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2023. The Global Gender Gap Report 2023 finds that the overall gender gap has closed by 0.3% points, compared with the previous report, and the expected parity remains the same at 2154. The State of Social Enterprise 2024, the first comprehensive global data set to estimate the size and scope of social enterprise worldwide, from the Schwab Foundation's Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship, finds that one in two social enterprises around the world are women-led, compared to only one in five conventional businesses. Below are three social innovators recognized by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship for their social impact and efforts to close the gender gap and empower women worldwide. VIEW ARTICLE

  • DHL Global Connectedness Report Shows Why Globalization Remains Strong Despite Turbulent Times

    Intra-Asia trade flows remain strong while the West remain key trading partners of Asia - Evidence shows that markets in Asia Pacific are strongly connected with each other in the region. At least 70 percent of the countries in Asia Pacific have strong flows with their Asian counterparts. Looking at these countries’ top 10 connections, six or more are with an Asia Pacific market, citing robust intra-Asia trade. The Asian region is also closely connected with the West, with many of them having the United States or United Kingdom as their top 10 connections. Three questions, three insights: The analysis of global trends in the 2024 Global Connectedness Report examines three questions at the center of current debates about globalization. 1. Are global flows still growing? The evidence strongly rebuts the notion that the growth of global flows has gone into reverse. The world’s overall level of global connectedness reached a record high in 2022, and data suggest it remained at roughly the same level in 2023. Trade growth played a key role here. The share of global output traded internationally hit a record high in 2022. Early data suggest a modest decline in 2023, but this isn’t a signal of deglobalization. Trade growth normally lags behind GDP growth when the global economy slows. Furthermore, it seems companies haven’t lost their appetite for international expansion. Examples include a rise in the value of announced greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI), and the fact that publicly traded companies from most countries are earning more of their sales abroad, among others. People flows, which were hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, continued a strong recovery trend in 2023. International travel reached 88% of pre-pandemic levels and was on track for a full recovery by the end of 2024. VIEW REPORT

  • China’s Investment In The Asia Pacific: 2023 Report

    China’s cumulative engagement in Asia and the Pacific over the past ten years reached USD 530 billion in 2023, about USD 245 billion in construction contracts, and USD 285 billion in non-financial investments. Six countries saw a 100 per cent drop in China’s engagement in Asia-Pacific compared to 2022, including the Philippines, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Tajikistan and Turkey. China’s engagement in Pakistan for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) dropped by about 74 per cent; China’s engagement in Australia dropped by about 66 per cent (see Figure 5). The countries with the largest growth of China’s engagement were South Korea (+577  per cent), Uzbekistan (+375 per cent), Kazakhstan (+240 per cent) Cambodia (+133 per cent), and Vietnam (+91 per cent). Preliminary data on Chinese engagement through financial investments and contractual cooperation for 2023 in Asia and Pacific show about 94 deals worth USD 37 billion. This compares to USD 29 billion Asia-Pacific engagement in all of 2022—an increase of 25 per cent. Of the 2023 engagement, about USD 20 billion was through investment and USD 17 billion through construction contracts (partly financed by Chinese loans). China’s overall engagement shows a steady development since 2021 from the onset of COVID-19. Deal sizes are getting bigger again, particularly for investments The average deal size for investments remains high in 2023 at about USD 499 million and has more than doubled from a low or USD 195 million in 2021. It has slightly decreased from 2022, when investment deal size in Asia Pacific was about USD  583 million. For construction projects, the deal size in 2023 increased compared to 2022 from USD 285 million to USD 401 million. Asia Pacific construction deal size has remained relatively steady over the past 8 years. (see Figure 3). Similar to the overall BRI, China’s engagement in Asia and the Pacific does not necessarily reflect the stated China overseas engagement strategy of “small yet beautiful projects” propagated through official channels. VIEW REPORT

  • Call For Applications - UN ESCAP FDI Attractiveness & Export Readiness Training Program for Sri Lanka Based ICT Companies

    We are pleased to launch a new United Nations ESCAP #FDI attractiveness and export readiness training program for Sri Lanka-based ICT companies looking to expand internationally, kicking off 13 & 14 May in Colombo, Sri Lanka, supporting the country‘s DIGIECON SRI LANKA 2023 - 2030 roadmap. Apply to the program here by 5 April and join Tom Becker and myself in Colombo: https://lnkd.in/g6saByAx - 🇺🇳 United Nations ESCAP, in collaboration with the Information Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka and the BOI Sri Lanka. Details of the program: The program will be based around the delivery of training for up to 15 digital (ICT) firms that are ready to develop into overseas markets. The program will take place over two days in Colombo (13 and 14 May) and will support the development of the company's capacity to implement effective internationalization strategies. Companies will apply to participate in the program with applications to be judged by a working group of United Nations ESCAP, ICTA, BOI Sri Lanka and KW Group Asia-Pacific Advisory, with all companies committing to attend for the two days of the training. Companies must be based in Sri Lanka, export/growth-ready, and in a position to access overseas markets within the next 6 months with the necessary internal resources. Program attendees must be key stakeholders who will actively oversee the implementation. The training will be followed by 4 virtual sessions to refine and evaluate the implementation of the internationalization roadmaps to develop their strategic development into new export markets (2 days in person, plus 3 virtual sessions 2-3 hours each). The training agenda is designed to provide a comprehensive learning experience for Sri Lankan mid-growth, export-ready ICT companies aiming for internationalization through foreign investment and export development. The combination of in-person and virtual sessions allows for both theoretical learning and practical application, through implementation and review with ample opportunities for interaction and feedback. The program will support companies through the development of investor targeting and market development strategies as outcomes and will be followed by 3 virtual sessions where the strategic plans will be refined and developed for implementation. Companies are required to submit the application form, in no more than 200 words per section. Applications are reviewed and assessed by a committee led by UNESCAP, the BOI, ICTA, and KW Group. The deadline for submission is 5 April. Warm Regards, Andrew Keable VIEW APPLICATION FORM

  • Milken Global Opportunity Index 2024: Attracting Foreign Investment

    The US’s Milken Institute has announced its Global Opportunity Index (GOI) 2024 report, with Malaysia named as the country with the best overall investment condition among emerging and developing (E&D) nations in Asia. Globally, Malaysia has an overall ranking of 27, ahead of Thailand (37) and China (39), according to the report. Indonesian Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Zafrul Abdul Aziz was quoted by local media as commenting on the achievement that it is a testament to Malaysia’s efforts in enhancing the ease of doing business and addressing key pain points along the investor’s journey. He said that the recognition reflects Malaysia’s volumes of focus on efficient implementation of approved investments, while motivating the country to deliver even better service to help investors make Malaysia their gateway to Asia. Milken Institute said Malaysia, the country with the best investment conditions in the region, performed significantly above the E&D average in financial services and institutional frameworks. In addition to Malaysia, China, the region’s largest economy, scores significantly above the E&D average on financial access and financial size and conditions, the two subcategories included in financial services, it said. “Emerging and developing economies in Asia and Latin America are in the spotlight as policymakers and investors seek to diversify critical supply chains including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and clean energy materials and technologies,” said David Talbot, PhD, director at the Milken Institute who leads Geo-Economics research and policy programming for MI Finance. “The GOI is an essential tool for decision-makers who are looking to both attract capital and build resilience amidst the reconfiguration of global trade and investment.” The GOI rankings are available as an interactive website that allows users to personalize their experience based on individual interests using a variety of visual elements, including tables and heatmaps. “The Global Opportunity Index serves as a compass for those navigating the complexities of global investments. The index provides stakeholders with crucial insights to seize opportunities and craft resilient investment strategies. By revealing emerging trends and spotlighting the strengths and challenges of diverse economies, the GOI gives decision-makers a comprehensive global perspective to harness the untapped potential and foster sustainable growth across international markets,” said Laura Deal Lacey, Executive Vice President of MI International at the Milken Institute. VIEW REPORT

  • Alibaba sets sights on expanding Southeast Asia cloud business to help region’s decarbonisation efforts

    The Chinese tech company has pioneered a ‘Scope 3+’ concept that goes beyond conventional value chain emissions reduction and is targeted at empowering businesses on its platforms to go low-carbon. It brings to Malaysia its suite of AI-based sustainability tools. For Malaysian firm UEM Edgenta, greenhouse gas emissions tracking has for a long time been a manual process. The Kuala Lumpur-based asset management and infrastructure company, keen to calculate and report across its Scope 1 to 3 emissions, had been looking to streamline its environment, social and governance (ESG) strategies. It also wanted to simplify its sustainability reporting processes for a compliance exercise that it was undertaking, but found that it lacked the technological capabilities to do so. Hence, last year, when Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, expressed interest to work with more companies to adopt its artificial intelligence (AI) sustainability tools and solutions, UEM Edgenta was one of the firms eager to pursue the partnership. It made a huge leap in transforming its business strategy into a technology-driven one, and among the new solutions it adopted was Energy Expert, a software-as-a-service tool for energy consumption and carbon management. UEM Edgenta has since integrated the tool developed by Alibaba Cloud, which is capable of helping enterprises obtain real-time sustainability performance statistics and identify emissions sources, into its own cloud-based data platform. In September last year, the firm launched a set of climate targets and announced its commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A key thrust of its decarbonisation strategy is enhancing energy efficiency of its operations. In China, home to some of the world’s largest technology companies, cloud computing has played a pivotal role in facilitating energy-light digitalisation. Unlike the traditional use of localised hardware and servers for data storage, cloud computing uses web-based infrastructure, eliminating the need to construct sizeable server farms and substantially reducing operational carbon emissions. Industry insiders believe it provides unprecedented opportunities for decarbonisation through the integration of data intelligence and AI technologies. VIEW ARTICLE

  • Australia Announces $70.2 Million ASEAN Hubs for Investment Deal Teams

    Australia will launch Investment Deal Team hubs in Singapore, Jakarta, and Ho Chi Minh City, with additional Deal Team representatives across the ASEAN region. But are regional IPAs and governments prepared with Investor-Ready Projects? Announced by Prime Minister Albanese at the launch of Invested: Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, the Deal Teams will work with governments and businesses in Southeast Asia to identify and facilitate outbound investment opportunities for Australian investors. They will draw on public and private sector expertise to identify a pipeline of investment-ready projects, provide market intelligence, and advise Australian investors on matters from regulatory approvals to finding local commercial partners. The $70.2 million Deal Teams involve experts from Austrade, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and Export Finance Australia (EFA), and form part of the Government's implementation of Invested: Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040. They will also support businesses to access the newly announced $2 billion Southeast Asia Investment Financing Facility, administered by EFA, and other trade and investment initiatives to facilitate and crowd in Australian private sector investment across Southeast Asia. VIEW ARTICLE

  • Unleashing the Power of FDI for Gender Equality 💥

    Foreign direct investment (FDI) has immense potential to accelerate progress towards #GenderEquality, but is this promise being fulfilled? By Heather Taylor-Strauss, economist and FDI lead at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific In my latest piece for fDi Intelligence, I dive deep into the crucial need for data and evidence to validate FDI's transformative impact on women's empowerment. Gender specialists, FDI authorities, policymakers - this is a must-read as we approach the UN's summit on catalyzing action for #SDG5 later this month in New York. It's time to move beyond assumptions. Rigorous case studies, impact assessments, and gender-focused metrics are essential to channeling FDI as a driving force for: ✨ Closing gender pay gaps ✨ Promoting women's leadership ✨ Providing inclusive opportunities ✨ Advancing gender-responsive policies Read, share your perspectives, and join the call for building and disseminating a compelling evidence base at the FDI project level to leverage the full potential of #FDI for #WomenEmpowerment #InvestmentPromotion #GenderLens #EconomicDevelopment #GlobalGoals And let's also take a moment today - on #internationalwomensday2024 to applaud all those the investment promotion agencies (Investment Fiji Pakistan Board of Investment @Malaysia Development Authority Invest India InvestChile Philippine Board of Investments (BOI)) and FDI practitioners (Stephania Bonilla-Feret Phd ambreen iftikhar Vanessa Séverin Andreas Dressler Michelle Wong Kathryn Rothwell Laura Figón Tom Becker Musarat Ali Dr. Kim J. Zietlow) who are all pioneering and pushing for integrating gender into investment promotion, attraction, and facilitation. Together we are paving the way and encouraging others to #domore! (and of course apologies for all those that I may have missed in the tags!) VIEW ARTICLE

  • UNCTAD: A World of Debt” Report

    When developing countries borrow money, they have to pay much higher interest rates compared to developed countries. This makes it difficult for them to fund important investments, which undermines debt sustainability & sustainable development. Explore the United Nations' “A World of Debt” report, including a debt dashboard & an interactive map with country-specific data. Public debt can be vital for development. Governments use it to finance their expenditures, to protect and invest in their people, and to pave their way to a better future. However, it can also be a heavy burden, when public debt grows too much or too fast. This is what is happening today across the developing world. Public debt has reached colossal levels, largely due to two factors. Financing needs soared with countries’ efforts to fend off the impact of cascading crises on development. These include the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, and climate change. An inequal international financial architecture makes developing countries’ access to financing inadequate and expensive. The weight of debt drags down development. Debt has been translating into a substantial burden for developing countries due to limited access to financing, rising borrowing costs, currency devaluations and sluggish growth. These factors compromise their ability to react to emergencies, tackle climate change and invest in their people and their future. Countries are facing the impossible choice of servicing their debt or serving their people. Today, 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on education or health. A world of debt disrupts prosperity for people and the planet. VIEW REPORT

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