The US Chamber of Commerce, in association with the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, has released its new “ASEAN Business Outlook 2015″. The report includes a vast survey of American companies currently doing business in South-East Asia. The outlook gauges their opinions on ASEAN, its integration into the AEC and the pros and cons of doing business in each ASEAN country. ASEAN markets are growing in importance to US companies’ activities and development because of the region's economic recovery, limited growth in other parts of the globe, improvement in ASEAN infrastructures and a widespread change of business strategy. Trade with ASEAN countries is expected to rise dramatically in coming years. The main reasons behind this increase, suggested by the report, are a diversification of the global customer base, low costs of production, political stability, availability of manpower and skilled employees, and increased legal framework suitable to stimulating investments. US companies are generally confident they will see increasing profits in all 10 ASEAN countries in 2015. Their priority markets are, however, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar. And, the report suggests, that generally US companies are not confident that the objectives of the ASEAN Economic Community and AEC will be completed by 2015.
