Sharon Soh, Head of Integrated Strategy & Marketing at UM, APAC highlights the growth of the region in part 1 of a 4-part series.
The past two decades have seen APAC’s remarkable development and rapid rise as the new center of the world, thanks to its soaring consumption and increasingly central role in global trade and innovation. Indeed, even prior to the pandemic, APAC had already been taking the lead in many areas, and market pundits are waiting to see when the “The Asian Century” would begin.
Based on the data tallied by the Financial Times, it was found that the APAC economy, for the first time since the 19th century, will be larger than the rest of the world combined in 2020. For context, APAC accounted for just over a third of world output in 2000.
APAC is retaking the center stage not just because of its two largest economies, China and India, but also due to growth in smaller and mid-sized countries in Southeast Asia like Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
Regional powerhouses like Japan, South Korea, and Australia, whilst recently overshadowed by China, will remain sizeable and influential economies. Collectively, these markets will continue to propel the region’s forward momentum towards upending the existing global order in key areas such as trade flows and networks, the corporate ecosystem, and consumer dynamics.
