F

or US or European companies looking for new opportunities, opening an office in Asia

can be a lucrative decision. For more than two decades, many of the region’s economies

have grown rapidly, fuelled by rising exports, growing populations and a large

emerging middle-class.

China, India and Vietnam have all posted annual GDP growth rates well above 5% for

the past eight years, according to the World Bank, while fast-growing nations like

Myanmar and Indonesia offer new consumer markets in diverse sectors. From a business-

to-business and operations perspective, Asia’s innovation and technology leaders Japan,

India and China have also become critical global markets, while Singapore and Hong

Kong have cemented their positions as key healthcare and financial hubs.

As a result, investment into Asia has boomed, as has the number of multinational

companies who have established regional headquarters or country offices. Foreign

companies invested more than $440 billion in Asia in 2016, and the region accounted for

one quarter of FDI inflows globally, according to the UNCTAD World Investment

Report 2017.
However, while business opportunities abound, emerging protectionist policies in parts of

Europe and the US have recently threatened the long-term economic landscape of the

region, which has thrived in large part on global advancement of free trade. Trump’s

recent threats to impose tariffs on imported aluminium, steel, washing machines and solar

panels and his 2017 decision to abandon the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership—

abruptly ending the deal, which required ratification by all participating countries—are

both seen as major setbacks for Asia.

Such policy changes may make for nervous global executives, but the feeling on the

ground, especially when it comes to business growth and the recruitment of staff, is

overwhelmingly optimistic according to the senior management team of RGF

International Recruitment (RGF), part of Japan’s Recruit Group.