More American companies say govt ignores private sector's input

In some indicators, the satisfaction has decreased by more than 20 per cent, according to the annual Asean Business Outlook Survey, released today by the US Chamber of Commerce and the American Chambers of Commerce in Asean member countries. 

In comparison, investor confidence has been steadily increasing in some of Thailand’s neighbouring countries, such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia. For example, investor satisfaction with new business incentives offered by the government has risen by 25 per cent over the past five years in Malaysia and decreased by 5 per cent in Thailand.   

“These results indicate that competitiveness is not something you achieve once and enjoy forever; remaining competitive is a process that requires a firm commitment and continuous tweaking and adjusting of laws and regulations to build and support a favorable business environment. In order to remain attractive to investors, Thailand will have to keep in step with neighbouring countries as they open their economies and entice investors with attractive incentives,” says Darren Buckley, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand. 

Asked to identify a variety of concerns and impediments to their growth in the region, the survey found that 63 per cent of polled executives in Thailand say that the government rarely or never considers input from the private sector on new laws and regulations (up from 45 per cent in last year’s survey).

Optimism on prospects in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) as a whole also decreased in the latest survey.

In a poll of 471 senior executives representing US companies in all ten Asean countries, 72 per cent reported that their company’s level of trade and investment in Asean has increased over the past two years, and an overwhelming 86 per cent of respondents expect it to increase over the next five years.

Over half (53 per cent) of respondents said that Asean markets have become more important in terms of their companies’ worldwide revenues over the past two years, but this is ten per centage points lower than reported two years earlier. In addition, two-thirds (66 per cent) of respondents this year expect Asean to become more important in terms of worldwide revenues over the next two years; while still high, this is 7 percentage points lower than two years earlier. 

In Thailand, 44 per cent of respondents said that Asean markets have increased in importance in the past two years and 61 per cent expect this importance to increase in the next two years. In terms of business expansion, 57 per cent of the polled executives in Thailand reported that their companies plan to expand in the country, while half expect their workforce to increase in 2016. 

As in previous years’ surveys, corruption was the top issue of concerns and impediments to their growth across Asean, cited by the majority of respondents in all countries except Brunei and Singapore. American companies also highlighted burdensome laws and regulations, lack of transparency, poor quality of infrastructure, and the difficulty in moving products through customs in some countries as obstacles to greater investment. 77 per cent of respondents to this year’s survey reported that exchange rate volatility has a “significant” or “somewhat significant” impact on their business operations in the region.