Mandalay Venture Partners’ Post

It was fascinating to hear all of the speakers from the #ASEAN region at the Australia-ASEAN Business Forum in Sydney a few weeks ago. The region continues to be in a growth explosion as the middle class across the geography continues to grow at unprecedented speeds. With the exception of Thailand and Singapore who have already broken the ceilings on their GDP growth, we are now seeing amazing signs from the emerging economies. Most Southeast Asia economies achieved the strongest quarterly performance in the past year with real GDP growth as a % below: - Vietnam 🇻🇳 6.9% - Philippines 🇵🇭 6.3% - Malaysia 🇲🇾 5.9% - Indonesia 🇮🇩 5.1% For comparison, Australia sits at around 1.5%, Singapore 2.9% and Thailand 2.3%. What does that mean for Australia, well a lot in fact. Demand for food security, Agtech applications, food systems and food tech, resources remain high. Australia also has sophisticated financial systems and processes that can be used as foundations to stimulate investment across the region (eg. R&D tax rebates, ESIC tax eligible investments and legislation like ESVCLP that allows for capital gains tax flow through. It’s wonderful to have champions like Francis Wong, OAM OSJ, Arjaree Sriratanaban, Justin McGowan GAICD, and others driving change and collaboration across ASEAN. As I’ve said many times before, it’s Australia’s turn to build the important bridges to the region that will drive the next generation of growth, if not, it may pass us all by. #Asean #economy #apac #policy #growth