Gulf Capital has released a white paper entitled, “Bridging West and East Asia: The Investment Case for Ascending Asia” that highlights the importance of the future growth of Asian economies as well as the development of intra-regional trade and investment flows between West Asia, including the GCC, and East Asia.
In a study conducted by Gulf Capital and Dr. Parag Khanna, founder and managing partner of FutureMap, the MENA region is expected to grow more than threefold by 2050. The ASEAN region is predicted to grow 3.7 times and India by five times. It is important to note that this supercharged growth for Asia is in stark contrast to the projected slower growth for the European and US economies during the same period, which is only 1.5 times and 1.8 times, respectively.
The GCC and Southeast Asia are two regions within greater Asia that will experience significant growth in the services sector due to demographic and technological changes. These societies’ growing affluence and consumption will likely lead to increased business activity, corporate profits, and valuations. More long-term reforms, such as liberalization of capital accounts and accelerated privatization, will probably unlock fresh investment from Asian markets.
Various trade and investment networks have developed between East and West Asia, indicating that capital, companies, and consumers will increasingly traverse the Indian Ocean and strengthen their connections along the new Silk Roads, thus creating a whole greater than its parts.