Speaking to reporters after its 54th AGM on Thursday, the group CEO Lim Yew Hoe said the investment in the new line in Shah Alam was necessary to meet growing demand for its ready-to-drink beverages.

The new line, he said, would be operational by June this year, and would boost its production of bottles by 40 per cent a year, and would be in time to meet additional demand during Hari Raya.

“Despite the challenging market conditions, and less than favourable forecasts, we are taking the contrarian view and see this as an opportune time to invest in expanding our operations and capacity.

“In fact, the economic slowdown offers us a window of opportunity to get the best deals from suppliers, especially those from Europe and Asia, whose economies are also down,” he said.

While the oil price has reached $27 per barrel, production costs in the Pertamina West Madura Onshore (WMO) project and Pertamina Offshore North West Java (ONWJ) project were at least at $30 per barrel, Pertamina CEO Dwi Sucipto said.

“Pertamina currently invests $3 billion to $4 billion per year in upstream projects. However, we will not cut investment as it is related to infrastructure. Therefore, we will try to cut employment costs,” he said on Wednesday in Jakarta.

The state-owned oil and gas producer was considering whether to cut staff numbers or cut employee spending. “Let’s hope Pertamina’s staff agree to have their salaries reduced. We need to reassess the policy regarding bonuses, as well as the yearly salary increases,” Dwi said.

Moreover, he added, Pertamina planned to conduct a “cross subsidy” from its downstream unit to the upstream one, because the company had successfully cut costs on the downstream side.

Pertamina has changed its trading supply chain from Petral to Integrated Supply Chain (ISC), which led to a $179.4 million efficiency, bought oil in a bigger capacity which saved $90 million, and prevented fraud in its oil shipments by implementing tighter controls, saving around $255 million.

“The normal oil loss during shipments, caused by technical factors such as oil evaporation, is just 0.2 percent. However, Pertamina’s level was so high, at 0.4 percent, that we implemented tight supervision on the ship and then managed to save a significant amount,” Dwi said.

Foreign investment amounted to US$5.2 billion last year, which is a 58 per cent increase compared to five years ago. Currently the province has 160 investment projects from more than 20 countries.

Numerous modern industrial factories have set up in the Savan-Seno special economic zone, Dansavan border area and outside the special zone. These are involved in manufacturing: Japanese camera parts, French sunglasses, Korea vehicles, Toyota spare parts, aviation spare parts, telecommunication equipment, and other vital products.

Freight and passenger vehicles crossing Savannakhet-Mukdahan Friendship Bridge and Dansavan border (Lao-Viet) increased from 77,800 vehicles in 2006 to 216,700 vehicles in 2015.

The value of imports and exports at the Savannakhet-Mukdahan Friendship Bridge reached US$1.341 billion last year while the number of tourists increased from 435,900 in 2006 to about 1 million in 2015.

Exports for the five years (2011 to 2015) reached US$3.6 billion, and imports US$1.2 billion, while revenue collection was over the plan each year by about 18 per cent to 20 per cent.

The electricity grid has gradually been developed to provide sufficient supply for industrial needs and to expand into remote areas, with over 80 per cent of villages presently being able to access electricity covering 87.8 per cent of all households.

With socio-economic development growth, poverty has been reduced. Presently, throughout the province there are only 149 poor villages, which is about 14.6 per cent of the total.

There are 8,633 poor households or 5.3per cent of the province’s total with only the districts of Xepon and Nong identified as poor.

The governor added that implementing east-west economic corridor integration still faced challenges that needed to be continuously addressed, such as socio-economic infrastructure, the lack of financial resources, technology, labour force issues, the competitive abilities of businesses, and the quality of management.

For the next five year plan, the province will focus on resolving issues to ensure better results based on the government’s directions.

Malaysia’s United More SDN.Bhd was also licensed on January 7 to build a $21 million plant to make TV screen frames and plastic covers in the Saigon Hi-Tech Park. The plant is set to begin production in the second quarter, with an initial capacity of four million units per year.

Investments by Thai businesses have particularly been busy, according to the local press.

The Government’s online newspaper, baochinhphu.vn, reported that Thai beer firm Singha Asia is expected to complete its $1.1 billion purchase of Masan Group stakes in January.

With this deal, Singha will hold a 25 per cent stake in Masan Consumer Holdings and 33.3 per cent in Masan Brewery – units that own food and drink brand names such as Chinsu, Omachi, Vinacafe and Su Tu Trang (White Lion) Beer.

Last year, Power Buy, a subsidiary of Thai retail giant Central Group, acquired a 49 per cent stake in NKT, a technology development firm owning the Nguyen Kim electronic store chain in Vietnam.

Also in 2015, Thai Beverage offered to buy about 40 per cent of HCM City-based Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage JSC, better known as Sabeco, according to financial news website ndh.vn.

The FIA noted to ndh.vn that, Thai firms had recently expressed concerns about many investors moving from their country to Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore – the Southeast Asian nations taking part in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP).

While the TTP is set to take effect in 2018, businesses in the Federation of Thai Industries were also worried that their goods would face stiffer competition from those coming from the countries joining the pact.

Last year, South Korea’s LG Electronics, the world’s second largest TV maker, decided to move its TV production facilities from Thailand to Vietnam to save costs and increase capacity.

The FIA said the South Korean government encouraged companies to invest in Vietnam during 2015, considering this a strategic investment destination.

The encouragement came in the context that most of South Korea’s leading businesses, including Samsung, Canon, POSCO, Hyundai and KEPCO, had already invested in Vietnam.

“There is a trend in capital flows,” said Can Van Luc, senior management advisor at the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and director of the BIDV Training School.

Luc told ndh.vn that Vietnam was expected to receive more capital moving not only from Thailand but also from China this year.

During 2015, about $548 billion was poured into emerging economies, which are widely known as economies with low to middle per capita income, while up to $1.1 trillion was taken out of them.

This meant that a net $540 billion was withdrawn in 2015, the highest level in the last 27 years.

China’s economic slowdown and the US Federal Reserve increasing interest rates, which are currently near zero per cent, are reportedly driving investor withdrawals from the emerging markets.

To Trung Thanh, who is an associate professor at the National Economics University, pointed out that Vietnam’s accelerating integration progress would be an advantage for the country to attract more foreign investment.

Last year, the country concluded negotiations for four free trade agreements, including those with the Eurasian Economic Union, the European Union, South Korea and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It also became a member of the ASEAN Economic Community, which was established last December 31.

Official sources said the country is now deeply integrated into 55 global economies, and it has slashed more than 90 per cent of its tariffs to zero per cent.

A recent Bloomberg report on growth prospects of 93 global economies forecast that Vietnam will grow by 6.6 per cent in 2016, the second fastest after India with 7.4 per cent.

Vietnam’s growth was also expected to top Southeast Asia, higher than the anticipated 5.2 per cent for Indonesia, 4.5 per cent for Malaysia, 3.2 per cent for Thailand and 2.3 per cent for Singapore.

Economists said Vietnam should further improve its business environment and enhance labour productivity to take advantage of current capital flow tendencies, especially when foreign direct investments in the country reached a record high of roughly $23 billion last year.

Ryu was joined by representatives from investor SoftBank Ventures Korea and start-ups VCNC and Swizzle at a roundtable discussion hosted by The Korea Herald.

Korean start-ups often struggle to break out of the local market, but they have advantages over start-ups in other Asian powers like China and Japan, which can be even more insulated on their large home turf, they agreed. Korean start-ups have a great environment, such as the high-tech infrastructure and trend-setting e-commerce and mobile markets, to build a product to be globally competitive, said Edward Lee, who heads global strategy for VCNC, maker of couples messaging app Between.

“Starting from Korea, there are a lot of advantages, especially if you are doing mobile services,” Lee said. “Commerce is so fast, everything is so fast in Korea. (Trends from Korea) are going to catch up in the near future, five or 10 years. So if you get a model, if you have a global mindset, I think it’s a good test bed to start a global service.”

The region’s most alluring market is Indonesia, an archipelago of 250 million people who are rapidly embracing mobile services. Local tech giant Kakao has jumped on board by acquiring Path, a U.S.-made $66 million social networking app with 4 million users in Indonesia, in its buildup to globalize.

This environment has led to mobile advertisements in the country being priced twice as high as in Korea, according to Alex Kim, a director at SoftBank Ventures Korea. Digital ad spending there is projected to grow some 70 percent this year.

But that doesn’t necessarily translate into customers spending big, Lee of VCNC claims.

He believes a lot of the activity in Indonesia comes from hype from Western tech companies likeFacebook or Google that have struggled to crack into China and sought a viable alternative. The high ad prices were driven by heated supply-side competition rather than customer demand, he said.

That is why Between cannot afford to compete in Indonesia, as it already covers the difficult market of Japan, he added. “If we cover Indonesia, we are in another competitive market where we can’t find us in the near future making money.”

Payments and logistics, along with tricky taxation and tariff processes, make Indonesia a labyrinth for foreign companies, especially in e-commerce. It may take 11-12 days to deliver to the thousands of far-flung islands, Ryu of Venture Port added.

But these infrastructure hurdles leave room for small start-ups to introduce creative solutions, both in Indonesia’s still-nascent $1 billion online retail market and beyond. “From a small start-up’s perspective, there is much room to innovate in the e-commerce market in Indonesia and Southeast Asia,” said Kim of SoftBank Ventures Korea, which funded the fast-growing Indonesian online marketplace Tokopedia in 2013. “In most developed and emerging market economies, there are already big e-commerce players … but small start-ups keep challenging that market.”

Meanwhile, Taiwan has long been relevant in the region with strong infrastructure and globally open users with spending power. But while Taiwan was once the biggest magnet for trends from Japan, the game has shifted as Korea’s pop culture has overtaken Hello Kitty and manga in popularity. Between has discovered an even fresher market in Thailand, with sturdy infrastructure compared to its neighbors, significant economic growth and a growing middle class.

“They are very trendy. They accept things very quickly just like Taiwan,” Lee said, noting that successful trends that spread from Japan to Taiwan then make their way to Thailand. Between has experienced the same phenomenon. “Right now competitiveness is not as high as in Indonesia. It means it could be better, fruitful market for us to invest, and just to capture the market.”

Still, the growth potential in the region has its limits. Nick Szabo, chief operating officer of Swizzle, says the video start-up can’t depend on the Southeast Asian market for revenue.

“We are going to Southeast Asia more to build user base, because a lot of other people are trying to get Southeast Asians viewers for video. But our target market is usually outside Southeast Asia, for people who can pay. There is just no money for entertainment stuff. There is not a lot of disposable income.”

Because of the lower labor costs, foreign companies often underestimate the amount of investment and preparation they need to enter the region. Kim of SoftBank’s Korea arm advises start-ups to brace themselves with solid staff and meaningful funding.

Instead of blanketing its service across the region, Between decided to zero in on key markets Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan, and localize its product and full-fledged marketing backed by local boots on the ground.

“If you want a bite, you shouldn’t nibble,” Lee said. “Now we only localize in the countries that we have local translation office in, where they are capable of doing the feedback and adjusting it to the market we aim for. Do everything great, if you are going to commit, then really do it. That’s what we learned.”

Dr Bernard Ong, Ipos’s director of the international engagement department, told The Straits Times: “What it means for a firm is that if they have business interests in Singapore and Cambodia, the whole process is cut short, and you save a lot of time and costs. You don’t have to pay translation fees and all those things.”

This could also encourage investors to invest in both countries, as patent grants can eventually lead to products being commercialised in a quicker manner, he added.

Cambodia is also on its way to be part of the Patent Cooperation Treaty, so Ipos said “the steady continuity in intellectual property (IP) cooperation between both countries is testament to the progressive integration and development of IP within Asean”.

Singapore and Cambodia had signed a memorandum of understanding last January to cooperate on IP protection and help develop the region’s IP ecosystem.

Ipos chief executive Daren Tang said: “We will continue to share and develop business-friendly and efficient IP processes for creators and entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and gain a competitive edge in Asean.”

“Do people have enough income to buy a car at [at 18]? Do they pay income tax? Now, the government allows people to import cars if they pay income tax. However, the government should increase the minimum age to 25 years old. There are many car showrooms and sales centres in Yangon, and [younger people] can buy cars from there. They don’t have to import cars.”

He said Myanmar has imported around 600,000 cars over the last five years.

“This causes traffic congestion and makes it difficult to find space to park cars in big cities. It is sad to see that there were quarrels, including cases of murder over parking spots in Yangon and Mandalay. The government needs to avoid that kind of problem,” he said.

In contrast, the agriculture and forestry sector has declined significantly in the past decade as a result of the country pursuing a market economy.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Khamchan Vongsaenboun yesterday presented a report on the role of her ministry in developing the market economy in line with socialist principles, at the 10th party congress.

She highlighted the achievements made in developing the economy through market mechanisms, allowing all economic sectors to be involved in the development process.

The involvement of all economic sectors has contributed to the continued growth of the Lao economy and changes in the country’s economic makeup.

According to the government report, in the fiscal year 1999-2000 the agriculture and forestry sector accounted for 46.2 per cent of the country’s economy but by 2014-15 this had fallen to 23.7 per cent. It is expected to decline to 19 per cent in the next five years.

Meanwhile industry’s share of the economic pie had risen from 17.9 per cent to 29.1 per cent by 2014-15 and is expected to increase to 32 per cent by 2020.

The construction of hydropower projects in particular is paving the way for Laos to move closer to industrialisation and modernisation.

The value of the service sector also increased from 35.9 per cent to 47.2 per cent in 2014-15.

In 2005, the number of workers in the agriculture and forestry sector accounted for 78.5 per cent of the country’s total labour force but was expected to have fallen to 65 per cent by the end of 2015.

Labour in the industrial sector increased from 4.8 per cent in 2005 to 11.5 per cent of the total in 2015 while the services sector rose from 16.7 per cent in 2005 to 23.4 per cent in 2015.

Over the past five years, despite the global economic recession, the economy has continued to grow at an average of 7.9 per cent annually and the number of poor families has declined significantly.

The value of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has reached 102,320 billion kip (US$12.8 billion) with GDP per capita climbing to 15.8 million kip ($1,970).

The government also mobilised total funding of 236,687 billion kip towards national development, which is considered higher than anticipated.

The government also focused on strengthening SMEs so that they are capable of competing within the Asean Economic Community.

It’s projected that the economy will continue to grow at an average of 7.5 per cent annually over the next five years with GDP per capita projected to reach US$3,190.

Economic growth will be driven by several mega-projects such as the Laos-China railway, Hongsa power plant, Xayaboury hydropower project and other investment projects.