Go digital to win emerging middle class in Asean

WITH so many of the world's economies characterised by slow growth, Asean represents one of the largest opportunities today for companies in many sectors ranging from consumer goods and services, retail, aviation, automotive to logistics. Robust consumption is driven by favourable demographics, rising incomes, rapid urbanisation and ongoing economic growth across the region.

According to Accenture's research Asean's Limited Time Offer: 100 Million New Consumers to Win and a US$770 Billion Reason to Move Now, by 2020 the Asean economy is estimated to reach US$3 trillion and new waves of consumer spending growth are expected to inject US$770 billion a year of incremental sales into the market.

As the region's most developed country and fourth largest economy, Singapore will be worth at least US$340 billion by 2020. Singapore is also the region's wealthiest country on a per capita basis with rising incomes, and consumer spending is expected to grow 6 per cent annually to reach US$176 billion in the next five years.