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Some 20 years after the Asian financial crisis brought many Southeast Asian nations to their knees, business sentiment is buoyant in a region that now functions as one of the primary engines of globa growth, according to the results of our inaugural Business Barometer: OBG in ASEAN CEO Survey.
Some 20 years after the Asian financial crisis brought many South-east Asian nations to their knees, business sentiment is buoyant in a region that now functions as the primary engine of global growth, according to the results of our inaugural Business Barometer: OBG in ASEAN CEO Survey. This is the first time we have collated our proprietary data from individual ASEAN markets covered by OBG into a collective sample, allowing us to provide commentary on regional investor sentiment, as well as observe differing national perceptions within the bloc.
Among the GCC countries, Bahrain was in many senses the first to fully embrace the need to diversify its revenue streams away from hydrocarbons. The arrival of banks from Lebanon in the late 1970s gave it a head start in developing financial services and, in particular, offshore investment fund activity. This has stood the economy in good stead, but competition in sectors targeted for diversification, such as financial services, logistics, industry and tourism, has risen dramatically.