Malaysian exec sees growth in S.E.Asia

The ‘Official Welcome’ from left to right: Jackson Cox - Chairman of APCAC The Honorable Kurt Tong - Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau Siobhan Das - Executive Director of AMCHAM Malaysia The Honorable Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath -- US Charge d-Affaires to Singapore The Honorable Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir -- US Ambassador to Malaysia Ramzi Toubassy -- President of AMCHAM Malaysia The Honorable Sung Kim -- US Ambassador to the Philippines.

Leading business, government, diplomatic and academic figures have gathered for the much-anticipated Asia Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce business summit at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

President of the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce Ramzi Toubassy, said, "Asia's share of global GDP is expected to grow from 30% in 2016 to more than 50% by 2050.”

"As we have said many times, Asia matters to the US and the US matters to Asia -- the business and trade relationship is long standing and an incredibly important one," Mr Toubassy said.

 PwC Malaysia Managing Partner Sridharan Nair, said by 2050 China will be the world's biggest economy, followed by India with Indonesia the world's fourth largest economy.

"Our projections indicate that Southeast Asia will continue to grow in importance given its strategic geographical location -- it will serve as an economic platform for the Asia Pacific and the rest of the world," said Mr Nair.

Southeast Asia is already capturing high value-added US investments. While there's been a 33% increase in mining, oil and gas extraction investment between 2010 and 2016, there has been an 84% increase in manufacturing and a 131% increase in services investment during the same period.