Asean economies set to double GDP by 2020 says IHS

The Asean economy will double by 2020, with the nominal gross domestic product of the regional bloc increasing from US$2 trillion in 2012 to US$4.7 trillion, the global information company IHS says.

Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at IHS, speaking at a Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce conference on the outlook for emerging markets in Asia, said: "Asean is experiencing strong growth across the board.

"Frontier markets such as Vietnam and Myanmar are opening up, while Indonesia is expected to continue to grow."

IHS says in its global insight report that Vietnam and Myanmar are expected to reach a nominal GDP of US$290 billion and US$103 billion respectively by 2020 while Indonesia is expected to reach a projected nominal GDP of about US$1.9 trillion.

The IHS report says that overall, emerging markets in Asia are expected to be the fastest growing in the world and would continue to expand. It estimated that the GDP growth of emerging markets would exceed that of developed countries in 2020, continuing to expand thereafter.

Biswas said Asean was reaping the benefits of the free trade agreement signed with China in 2010 which formed the largest free trade area in terms of population and the third largest in terms of trade volume after the euro zone and the North American Free Trade Area.