Business families say Asia is key to growth

08 May 2013

 

A survey by the Business Families Institute at SMU and UOB found that nearly seven in 10 Asian business families said that the fortunes of Asia would have the most impact on their businesses. Among Singapore business families specifically, 85 per cent expressed this sentiment, second only to the proportion of Indonesian business families who thought this way. The authors of the survey said that this "home bias" was hardly surprising, given the natural affinity Asian business families would have for investing in the region. The survey polled 345 key decision-makers from business families in Singapore, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Singapore business families were relatively pessimistic, with only 29 per cent believing that this year would be better for Asia than last year; this was 11 percentage points lower than the next most downbeat country, Indonesia. The authors of the report put this pessimism down to "a perception that Asia as a whole is reliant on external markets in the United States and Europe to drive regional economic growth".