Singaporean businesses are most confident in expansion plans

Macroeconomic uncertainty is the biggest barrier to business growth in ASEAN.

Singaporean businesses are the most positive about expanding their enterprises with 94% saying they are confident about their growth, according to a survey by HSBC.

Overall, the survey found that businesses in the region are confident, with Thailand behind Singapore at 91%, followed by Vietnam (87%), Indonesia (86%), Malaysia, (84%), and the Philippines (80%).

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In terms of expansion 74% plan to invest more inside ASEAN, whilst 61% look at expanding outside the region.

However, challenges remain in their expansion plans with macro-economic uncertainty cited as the biggest barrier at 34%, followed by local technological capabilities (30%), supply chain challenges (28%), competition (28%), and rapidly changing regulations/policies (25%).

The survey involved 600 responses from businesses with annual revenues of at $150m. Responses were gathered equally from the six biggest markets in ASEAN which are Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.