ASEAN will become the world's fourth largest economy by 2030. (Source: Wikimedia)

On August 6, speaking at the Vision 2045: The ASEAN Era conference, Deputy Secretary General of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Satvinder Singh affirmed that ASEAN is on track to become the world's fourth largest economy by 2030.

Mr. Singh said that the above assessment is further reinforced by the increase in regional trade to 3.5 trillion USD by 2023 from 2.3 trillion USD in 2015, helping to significantly increase per capita income.

“This reflects ASEAN’s enduring commitment to becoming an open economic region for global trade and investment, which has improved significantly,” Mr. Singh affirmed.

The Association's GDP has jumped 51% to $3.8 trillion in 2023 from $2.5 trillion in 2015.

According to the AEC Deputy Secretary General, it is important that ASEAN is among the very few regions in the world where trade is close to GDP and the largest part of trade is not between the Association and China or the US but intra-bloc trade.

Mr. Satvinder said that currently, in the Southern Hemisphere, ASEAN is also the largest recipient of foreign direct investment with a total value of about 230 billion USD.

It is forecasted that in the coming years, global supply chains of companies with low carbon emissions and high value-added activities will likely be located in ASEAN countries. Some of the sectors that will see significant growth include semiconductors, agriculture, data equipment, as well as the minerals and metals industries.

Besides, the attraction for ASEAN is the transformation of technology and advanced technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things will create an additional 8,000 billion USD.

However, the bloc should work to reduce technology costs across its economy and ensure member economies have access to technology equipment and solutions.