The United States (US) is not stopping with China; it has threatened or engaged in trade wars with Canada, Mexico and the European Union (EU). Could ASEAN member states also be on US President Donald Trump’s list of targets?The US has a combined trade deficit of US$91.8 billion with ASEAN nations, with the largest three being Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand as of 2017.

For Southeast Asia’s biggest economies, 2018 wasn’t supposed to be like this.If a widening trade war wasn’t enough to contend with, a global wave of policy tightening, strong oil prices and domestic politics are also weighing on growth prospects for the region.

In Southeast Asia of late, the spotlight has been on the many ambitious infrastructure projects happening across the region. In the Philippines, President Duterte’s “Build!, Build!, Build!” infrastructure plan is underway with 75 different projects estimated to cost the country US$180 billion. In Indonesia, a high-speed rail system covering a distance of 140 kilometres connecting Jakarta to Bandung is also currently underway.

Across Asia, demographic trends are indicating a growing ageing population with the 65 and above age category projected to more than double, reaching close to 2.5 times the current figures by 2050. Similar patterns can be discerned in Southeast Asia. The ageing markets within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) can be divided into three separate categories – high-income, mid-income and low-income ageing markets.

With a few exceptions, most minor tropical fruits like rambutans, mangosteens, lychees, longans and durians remain a secret only known to the people who live in the areas where they are grown. Unlike their temperate counterparts - apples, pears, grapes, strawberries and kiwi - and major tropical fruits - mangoes, pineapples, papayas and avocados - minor tropical fruits are not widely traded and you will be hard pressed to find them in markets outside the areas where they are grown.

The manufacturing sector has been one of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) key economic growth drivers. Already, the region is a global manufacturing hub and is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.6 percent between 2016 to 2020.One key factor propelling demand in this sector is a 640 million strong regionwide consumer base with a growing middle-income segment.

Malaysia’s ringgit was sheltered from the worst of last month’s emerging-market selloff, thanks to higher oil prices.

Among business leaders in Myanmar, would-be investment from the United States (US) and Europe is known by the wry acronym NATO.“No Action, Talk Only,” Sean Turnell, special economic consultant to Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said in an interview, underscoring the country’s history of missed opportunities and unfulfilled potential.As Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economy began the transition from five decades of military rule to democracy with the swearing in of the first popularly-el

Airbnb took the world by storm by serving as a marketplace connecting travellers to people offering short-term accommodation in their homes. Nearly a decade after its formation, blowback against home-sharing is threatening to take the wind out of its sails.Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia decided to rent out three air mattresses in their San Francisco apartment living room. There was a severe shortage of hotel rooms in town due to a convention.

The story of economic growth within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a remarkable one. Having successfully weathered economic headwinds like the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global economic meltdown, ASEAN’s gross domestic product (GDP) has more than quadrupled since 1999, from US$577 billion in 1999 to US$2.5 trillion in 2016, making it the sixth-largest economy in the world.