ASEAN Report: FDI Flows at a Record High

August 23, 2013 Posted by ASEAN Briefing Reading Time: 2 minutes

Aug. 23 – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) recently published their 2012 ASEAN Investment Report in which the they revealed their recent foreign direct investment (FDI) successes.

Specifically:

FDI flows into ASEAN rose to an all-time high of US$114 billion in 2011 (up 24 percent year-on-year compared to 2010);
ASEAN took in about 7.4 percent of total global FDI inflows in 2011; and
ASEAN’s FDI stock has grown to over US$1.1 trillion in 2011 (quadrupling from just US$266 billion in 2000).

What brought about these improvements?

ASEAN’s strong FDI performance were brought about as a result of various factors, including a surge in M&A sales, a record increase in intra-ASEAN investments and a rise in FDI from emerging sources on top of regional measures and agreements.

Specifically, ASEAN has implemented a number of regional measures over recent years – including measures to implement the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement, to develop the ASEAN Economic Community and the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement, the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services and the ASEAN Agreement on the Movement of Natural Persons.

Furthermore, each individual ASEAN member country has also introduced measures to further improve their respective investment environments by further opening up more industries for investment and investment routes, simplifying investment procedures and providing tax and financial incentives to promote FDI in new industries.

You can download the full report here.

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