European companies train sights on Asean

BRUSSELS—Companies across the 27-member European Union are increasingly turning their attention to countries constituting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, realizing that fast-developing Asia offers them great potential for growth.

Freya Lemcke, advisor for International Affairs of Eurochambres, which represents mainly small- and medium-scale enterprises operating within the EU, said in a briefing here that SMEs in the bloc had expanded initially to neighboring countries just outside the common boundary of the EU, such as Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean countries.

Lemcke said, however, that given the rapid economic growth in Asia, as well as the growing knowledge of what the countries in the “Far East” have to offer, there has been a shift in interest from the neighboring countries to Asia, which includes the 10 countries constituting the Asean.

“Asean countries are becoming more of a focus, especially with the integration process [there],” Lemcke said, adding that the closer Asean gets to having its own customs union and common standards, the more interesting it will become to EU businesses.

She said that bringing Asean countries together under one economic community makes the region an ideal expansion destination for the companies represented by the federation of chambers of commerce and industry, as the SMEs—classified as those with a maximum of 250 employees each—have limited capabilities to deal with individual countries in Asean.

Eurochambres, which acts as the “eyes, ears and voice of the business community at the EU level,” is the umbrella organization of 47 member associations and 2,000 regional and local chambers of commerce and industry representing 20 million enterprises, of which 93 percent are small and medium-sized.

Established in 1958 as a direct response to the creation of the European Economic Community, its main goal is to improve the conditions in which businesses operate, to facilitate access to markets within and beyond the EU.

Eurochambres established its first foothold in the region through the establishment of the European Asean Business Centre in Thailand, which will become the investment and market platform for European companies in that country, particularly for those in the garments and textiles sector.

Lemcke said that the hope was to establish similar centers in other parts of the Asean to ease the entry of SMEs into those nations.