‘High opportunity, low trust’: Why firms see Asean market as attractive but not easy to navigate
More than 60% of respondents think the most compelling prospects in the next 3 years are within the region
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[SINGAPORE] In the decades before the pandemic, South-east Asian exports drove economic growth for the region. However, business leaders here are now looking closer to home for opportunities.
From the 1980s to the 2000s, exports of goods to markets such as the United States helped to power economies of countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
More recently, they have also boosted Vietnam’s economic growth as Hanoi capitalises on a restructuring of global supply chains.
The Business Times Insights: Asean Intelligence 2026 found that 63 per cent of the 538 business leaders surveyed think the strongest economic opportunities in the next three yearsare in Asean.
Sixty-two per cent also viewed their domestic markets as offering the most compelling opportunities. China ranked third, with 48 per cent of those surveyed citing it.
Working with market survey firm Kantar, the BT study polled corporate leaders from different industries in the Asean-6 economies: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Asean, now the world’s fifth-largest economic bloc, is poised to become the world’s fourth-largest by 2030, said DBS chief economist Taimur Baig and senior economist Chua Han Teng.
The economies of Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines have expanded by at least 4 per cent annually since 2022, based on World Bank statistics.
In the “neighbourhood”
Beyond the growth narrative, familiarity and policy are also key contributors to this outlook, said Maybank Securities economist Brian Lee.
“Many business leaders surveyed across Asean could have had prior experience in doing business around the region,” he noted, adding that “the region is within their immediate neighbourhood”.
“The longstanding network for intra-Asia free-trade agreements and bilateral free-trade agreements between China and Asean countries has helped ease investment barriers and strengthen market access,” he said.
In an investor presentation in March, Philippine conglomerate SM Investments Corporation (SMIC) highlighted that it intends to expand its retail footprint by adding three or four malls this year.
It also plans to expand its banking operations with branches in underserved areas of the country. The group is the Philippines’ largest integrated real estate developer, and it also owns BDO Unibank, the nation’s largest bank.
In an e-mail interview with BT, SMIC president and chief executive officer Frederic DyBuncio said the conglomerate’s outlook from March still holds.
“The Philippines continues to benefit from a strong domestic consumption base,” he noted. “Household spending accounts for about three-quarters of the economy, supported by remittances and a young and growing population.
“This provides a relatively stable demand environment, even during periods of cost pressure.”
He added that SMIC remains generally positive on the Philippines, and is investing responsibility to capture the opportunities.
Apart from its banking, real estate and consumer businesses, the group has been investing in newer segments such as logistics through 2GO, and renewable energy via Philippine Geothermal Production.
Opportunity vs trust gap
While the region offers many opportunities – which track with the business activity – there are trust hurdles that Asean and some individual economies may need to overcome.
These are markets that businesses perceive as attractive, but harder to navigate.
At the regional level, this mismatch of “high opportunity and low trust” is especially pronounced, as the BT survey has found.
For example, more than 40 per cent of respondents in the Philippines and Singapore said they had low trust in the region, even as they saw “strong” opportunities there.
Business leaders from Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia likewise reported significant levels of thisgap in their sentiments towards Asean.
Intense competition and rising costs in Asean economies were cited as key contributing factors. Other reasons include the uneven pace of economic development and structural fragmentation within the bloc.
Domestically, the Philippines had the largest gap between opportunity and trust, with a third of the 46 executives surveyed identifying such a divide in their home market. They cited reasons including rigid local regulations.
Indonesia came in second, with 21 per cent of the 43 respondents citing a mismatch. They attributed it to factors such as fluctuating exchange rates and rising inflation.
Gain deeper insights into the future of business and be better informed as you navigate what is ahead with The Business Times Insights: Asean Intelligence
About the survey
This year, The Business Times commissioned market research firm Kantar to conduct a survey to capture the pulse of leadership across the region.
The first wave of the study, conducted in February 2026, polled 538 business leaders in the Asean-6 economies: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. They are from diverse industries including manufacturing, consumer and retail, healthcare, and financial services. Most of them are in C-suite or senior management roles, or are business owners.
About 65 per cent of respondents are from large enterprises, and 35 per cent from small and medium enterprises.
In April 2026, a second, more targeted wave of fieldwork was conducted to gauge the impact of the Middle East conflict on business sentiments. It polled 246 business leaders of a similar high-level profile.
“Our mission is to move beyond the surface-level narrative of regional growth,” said BT editor Chen Huifen. “By investing in our own proprietary intelligence, we are ensuring that our readers have access to the ground-level truths that external observers might miss. It is about bringing a home-grown perspective to a global audience, and providing the spark to help leaders turn volatility into opportunity.”
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