MANAMA: Asean countries together have become a very critical economic block that cannot be ignored under current economic scenario, Malaysian Ambassador Ahmad Shahizan Abd Samad said yesterday.

He was speaking during a business discourse organised by the investment advisory firm EMP Middle East at InterContinental Regency Bahrain.

The theme of the event was "Asean Economies: Opportunities and Trends", under the patronage of Mr Abd Samad.

Malaysian asset management house RHB-OSK Asset Management chief executive Greg Barnes was the main speaker.

The event was attended by heads of prominent financial institutions, industrialists and businessmen from Bahrain.

Mr Abd Samad said that with a young population and growing economies, Asean countries were an ideal investment ground for Bahraini investors and businessmen alike.

"With high growth achieved by Asean economies in last couple of years, there is growing interest from many investors, including from Middle East, to take part in various projects in the Asean region," he added.

Mr Barnes highlighted the opportunities arising out of urbanisation among Asean countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, etc and growing interest of large economies such as China and Japan in this region, which in turn is fuelling growth in this important economic block.

With 600 million population having majority young under the age of 30 years, Asean is poised for a long and sustained growth trajectory.

The organiser of the event, EMP Middle East chief executive John Abraham said that with sustainable high growth rate expected in Asean countries, it is likely to continue to outperform most of the emerging markets in the coming years.

"With more than $2.3 trillion combined GDP, Asean countries are one of the largest economic block among emerging market countries," he added.

EMP Middle East director E V Jensen said Asean economies have a diverse mix of economies with highly developed countries such as Singapore and nascent developing economies such as Vietnam and Myanmar.

This provides a natural diversification while investing in this region.

RHB-OSK Asset Management, the fund management arm of RHB-OSK group, manages about $13billion.

EMP Middle East is a Central Bank of Bahrain regulated investment advisory firm.

By gulf-daily-news.com

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