TAG: Brunei Darussalam
In an era marked by rapid technological innovation and turbulence in the global trade environment, China’s ascendance to superpower status is having a profound impact on emerging markets the world over, and nowhere more so than in South-east Asia.
The broadly positive outlooks highlighted in the latest OBG Business Barometer: ASEAN CEO Survey indicate that ASEAN’s mix of aspirational consumers, digital natives and abundant natural resources continues to hold the promise of high returns. One factor that could nevertheless prevent the region from reaching its full potential is the significant skills gap observed in each country. Wholesale changes to national curricula may thus be in order, so that the emerging ASEAN economies can successfully cultivate the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders with the vision to drive inclusive, sustainable growth.
Construction – and infrastructure development in particular – is expected to be a key driver of economic growth across ASEAN from 2021. The bloc, home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies and lowest unemployment rates, faced the novel coronavirus after years of health care infrastructure improvements, with much of the group reporting Covid-19 case-fatality rates below the global mean in 2020.