This was the view shared by Ehon Chan, executive director at the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre, in an interview with The Brunei Times.

Chan was invited for a talk and fireside chat at a dialogue session with Darussalam Enterprise (DARe) alongside DARe boardmember Keeran Janin with various local entrepreneurs.

“If you think about your typical Asean company, it tends to be limited to their own country. If you want to set up a company in or expand to another country it can be difficult. You had to go through a whole lot of legal hoops,” he said.

Chan noted that the AEC, alongside the TPP pact which has four Asean member countries (Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam), the local market is suddenly now global, if not just Asean-wide.

He said that it was now potentially easier to create a business anywhere in Asean.

On the other hand, he said entrepreneurs have to be more competitive and innovative to be able to fight with all these other businesses in the global and Asean, and will push their boundaries of thought.

Some trending areas in which he believe entrepreneurs should take interest in is financial technology, or fintech.

“Real estate is another one, a traditional bricks-and-mortar company that could soon go online, and Internet-of-Things which will become more important as we become more connected whether to more things or people,” he said.

For social entrepreneurship, or those entrepreneurs who want to focus on creating a larger social impact, sustainability is a particular issue that is becoming of greater importance, he said. “Especially in this region, climate change is the most pressing issue of our time so we have more people trying to come and solve that.”

Education is another focus for social entrepreneurs, and speaking as a Malaysian, he said the education system there was still based on an older model and things have changed dramatically since, and added that inequality in education between the have and have-nots is a big challenge they are currently facing.

Income inequality itself is an issue that is also something social entrepreneurs could look to address, he said, and looking into solutions to bridge the gap between the wealthy and those who are not as well-off.

For budding entrepreneurs, Chan suggests that entering a “Blue Ocean market” which was a new market that had not existed before, is now much harder given the information age and how people are now more connected than ever.

“My tip is to think about products people would need and then make them believe that they need it, instead of coming up with ideas that solve small social inconveniences,” he said. “A lot of people focus on solving little problems instead of solving the deep issue. If it is a little issue then the market you have may not justify the effort and is not going to really make a good amount of profit,” he said.