Results of the EU-ASEAN Business Sentiment Survey 2015

26 August, 2015

As part of the EU-ASEAN Business Council (EU-ABC), which is the primary voice for European business within the ASEAN region, EuroCham Cambodia asked few months ago our Members and Partners to participate in the EU-ASEAN Business Sentiment Survey 2015.

The goal of this survey "is to capture the thoughts and attitudes of European businesses operating in the region. This is the first of what we expect to be an ongoing annual report looking at the views of European businesses across ASEAN in a number of key areas (e.g. economic outlook; policy frameworks; stakeholder engagement). The purpose of this Survey is to gauge how European businesses view ASEAN, both in terms of economic and trade potential and in terms of political developments, such as ASEAN’s regional integration project. We have also taken the opportunity to look at related issues such as the utilisation of FTAs and how European businesses in ASEAN view the support that they get from the European Union".

The results are definitely interesting. Cambodia totaled a high number of respondents. We want to thank all the businesses which provided information to make this survey even more relevant.

Key findings:

71% of the respondents indicated that in terms of worldwide revenues, ASEAN has become more important over the past 2 years
70% of the respondents foresee an increase in profits in ASEAN
80% of the respondents indicated that over the next 5 years, they expect trade and investment with the region to increase
63% of respondents across the ASEAN region predict that they will employ more staff in the next 5 years
Respondents identified diversification of customer base; adequate laws and regulations to encourage foreign investment; and, reasonable production cost as the three most important factors that drive investment decisions in ASEAN
58% of respondents indicated that further economic integration within ASEAN is important to the success of their business
61% of the respondents indicated that the FTAs the European Union is negotiating with ASEAN countries will help their company’s trade and investment performance
The majority of respondents are not fully informed about the various trade agreements that are in place or which are being negotiated, perhaps showing a lack of communication from governments on the benefits of these agreements for business
Half of the respondents do not have an ASEAN business strategy despite broad support for the AEC
69% of respondents feel that the European Union should be more engaged in supporting business activity in ASEAN