Deloitte plans higher investment in Southeast Asia amid rapid growth in region

Deloitte's chief executive officer for Asia Pacific, David Hill, said during an exclusive interview with The Nation that the Deloitte World Meeting in Rome in late September had approved a major investment to scale Southeast Asia, including markets in Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

"We normally invest 7-8 per cent of revenue in this region. On top of that, we recently announced a $225-million scale investment in Southeast Asia for at least the next five years," Hill stated.

The goal of this movement is to build Deloitte's capability on the ground in Southeast Asia in order to win and deliver company services to clients seamlessly. It will also serve as an announcement for talent in Thailand and its neighbouring countries, ensuring that Deloitte is the employer of choice in every market in this region.

"The funding will come from both Deloitte Southeast Asia and Deloitte Global. We are committing to this region because we believe it is important," Hill noted.

He explained that the Southeast Asia region will be 100 per cent more engaged in the global economy. Most developing countries in this region are becoming developed, which increases the need for professional services.

"Many major global institutions are moving and coming into the Southeast Asia region for reasons such as supply chain. Malaysia and the Philippines are relevant for chain services, Vietnam for manufacturing and supply chain, and Thailand for emerging technology such as blockchain and the financial services industry," Hill pointed out.

He added that Southeast Asia has a growing population, a growing economy, a maturing professional services sector, and is a neutral region in terms of current geopolitical dynamics.

Furthermore, the region remains a source of low-cost operations with high-quality infrastructure, such as 5G connectivity, multilingual talent, and a wealth of resources.

Hill stated that Deloitte, which was recently named the No. 1 professional services firm in Asia Pacific and globally, will use its resources, knowledge, and technology to help the business navigate digital transformation, cloud migration, truly embracing all the abundant data, applying all appropriate technology to build digital twins, and optimising performance.
 

Besides, he stated that Deloitte will continue to provide its services to clients and their people in frictionless sustainable ways to serve the environment, social, and green (ESG) business trend.

"My objective is to ensure that our clients receive a seamless experience across Asia Pacific. It means it would be easiest for our clients to work with Deloitte across the region. And then for our people, to give them more opportunities to live and work across the region, particularly as we move into a post-Covid environment," Hill added.

Deloitte currently operates in 150 countries and at more than 750 locations worldwide, employing over 345,000 people, with over 60,000 in Asia Pacific.

Deloitte's aggregate global revenue for the fiscal year ending May 31, 2022 was US$59.3 billion, a 19.6 per cent increase over fiscal year 2021. In seven years, Deloitte's revenue has increased by $24 billion, or 69 per cent.