The UK and Southeast Asia Quick Facts: Trade and Investment • The region punches above its weight in terms of UK exports. Total UK exports to the 6 largest ASEAN economies - Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Vietnam - combined in 2012 were equivalent to over 3 times the UK’s exports to Brazil, twice India’s, and 50% more than Japan’s. • UK goods exports to ASEAN are rising more rapidly than British exports globally. UK services exports to ASEAN, the bulk of which go to Singapore, exceed those to either mainland China or Japan. Both are much larger economies than ASEAN. • Singapore is ranked by the World Bank’s Doing Business survey as having the best business environment in the world, and by the World Economic Forum as having the 2nd most competitive economy (after Switzerland). But 6 SE Asian countries – Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, and Burma – rank in the bottom half of the latest Doing Business survey. • Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, and Cambodia all rank in the bottom half of Transparency International’s 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index (Singapore ranks 5th, better than the UK). asean.org/asean/asean-member-states
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 12:56:23 +0000