Asia remains most attractive investment spot in 2012 

By Yu Jinghao (People's Daily)

08:13, January 10, 2012

Edited and Translated by People's Daily Online

Asia, in particular the emerging economies on the continent, remains the most attractive investment destination in the world this year, according to the recently released 2012 A.T. Kearney Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index. China, India, Brazil, the United States, Germany, and Australia take the top six positions, confirming that the world economy's center is shifting from the West to the East. 

Huge FDI inflows into Asia 

Xie Dongming, an economic analyst at OCBC Bank in Singapore, said Asia is undoubtedly still the most attractive investment destination, and Asian stock and bond markets are also extremely attractive to foreign investors. 

After the Asian financial crisis, many Asian countries conducted economic restructuring and improved their economic growth models, which has helped them maintain steady economic growth in recent years. 

Furthermore, Asia still has cost advantage over the rest of the world. Although the continent has been under great inflationary pressure in recent years, it is expected to decline in 2012. Therefore, it is certain that Asia will continue to attract huge capital inflows this year.

Internal investing within Asia becoming a trend

With the deepening economic integration in Asia, improving cooperative relations between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan and South Korea (10+3), as well as more investment agreements, more internal investment within Asia is expected to be made. 

Japan is a traditional investor country for Asia and the members of the ASEAN. As an important investor country of Asia, Singapore is the largest investor for Indonesia and Malaysia and the second largest investor for Thailand. 

People from Southeast Asia generally believe that as the Chinese government further encourages Chinese enterprises to “Go Global,” Asian countries, especially the Southeast Asia, will turn into key targets of the investments from China.

However, as Asian economies attract investments from each other, they are also competitors to certain extent. For example, as the labor cost of China is rising, more foreign-funded enterprises are shifting their manufacturing sites to countries like Vietnam and Indonesia.