Asean's '11th member' dips a toe in the bloc

Singapore

ASIA-PACIFIC law firm King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) has launched an international trade and investment practice with partners at its three-year-old office here on the back of an uptick of interest in South-east Asia.

Increasingly, that interest hails from Down Under, the partners added. Investors seem to be paying closer attention to Asean, even as Australia was recently floated as a possible 11th member of the regional bloc.

"For a long time, Australia looked past Asean and looked to China," Singapore-based partner Michael Lawson told The Business Times, notin…