In tandem with a renewable energy policy, energy efficiency will be key to building a reliable and sustainable energy system for the future of Southeast Asia. Energy efficiency refers to the reduced rate of energy consumption in order to produce the same amount of output.

Liberalising the ASEAN-EU market for trade was a key objective of the sixth ASEAN-EU Business Summit held in Singapore on 3rd March. Foundational to this, however is ASEAN integration, which contemplates the free movement of goods, services, investments and skilled labour in order to unify businesses and consumers in the Southeast Asian region.

More companies are opting for robotic automation of their manufacturing processes to get ahead, as reported by McKinsey & Company in 2017. Mainly, two types of robots, collaborative robots and industrial robots, are permeating the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing has been a pivotal factor in ASEAN’s development story by attracting earnings in foreign currency and investments for infrastructure-building, and creating employment opportunities within the region.

SMEs contribute 50% of ASEAN countries' gross domestic products (GDP) and drive 30% of ASEAN countries' exports, according to a joint 2018 report by the United Overseas Bank (UOB) and Dun & Bradstreet released in February 2018. 1,235 SMEs across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam were surveyed in a bid to better understand how SMEs in these countries were positioning themselves within an evolving business landscape.

Asia, which houses 43% of the world’s population holds only 13% of total global insurance premiums as of 2016, according to the 2017 UBS report, ‘Shifting Asia’. Out of this 13%, ASEAN countries make up just 3.8%, according to the Asia Insurance Market Report 2016 by advisory firm Willis Towers Watson.

Southeast Asia is home to more than 630 million people and is the world’s third largest region. As it is the fastest growing internet population in the world - with more than 3.8 million new users every month – the internet economy here is expected to reach US$200 billion with a total of US$1 trillion added to its GDP by 2025, according to A.T.

The retail sector accounts for the largest source of employment in the Southeast Asian region. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), it employs an aggregate of 44.6 million workers, which represents 16 percent of the region’s total employment.

Spotlight on energyThis week, The ASEAN Post highlighted some challenges that ASEAN is facing in terms of deploying renewable energy and electrification throughout the region. As the region’s energy demands grows, countries such as Myanmar are moving forward in order to quench the thirst for electricity.

In the future of transportation, what would you get if you mixed the business models of Tesla Inc., Google and Samsung Electronics Co. with the budget of the world’s fifth-biggest automaker?Chi Young Cho is about to find out.Hired from Samsung, Chi has assembled a team of 200 researchers at Hyundai Motor Co., the 50-year-old South Korean carmaker that fought its way to the top echelon of the auto world and is now struggling to stem flagging sales in some of its biggest markets.

We’re in the final few days of 2017, and what a year it’s been for Southeast Asia.