New Horizons: Renewed Concerns in ASEAN and Key Economies

The second high-level roundtable discussion in the SIIA’s New Horizons series focused on “Renewed Concerns in ASEAN and Key Economies”, where we looked at some of the key trends and concerns emerging from the ASEAN region following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Aladdin Rillo, Deputy Secretary- General, ASEAN Economic Community, the ASEAN Secretariat, kicked off the session by sharing how ASEAN is developing a recovery framework to tackle the economic fallout of COVID-19. Mr. Manu Bhaskaran, Founding Director and CEO, Centennial Asia Advisors, Council Member, the SIIA, then provided a reading of the economic situation and trends in key ASEAN countries.

A roundtable discussion followed among business leaders who agreed on the role the private sector plays in developing a recovery framework for ASEAN and the importance of political will within individual nations in order to achieve the goals set forth by ASEAN.

The New Horizons series was started by the SIIA to support the Emerging Stronger Taskforce (EST). As knowledge partner of the EST, the SIIA will convene a series of closed door roundtable dialogue sessions involving business leaders from different industries to examine the future of Singapore’s economy as well as identify opportunities for growth. Topics will include discussions centered around key ASEAN economies – Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam – as well as infrastructure of the future.