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September 16, 2014

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China’s rising middle class alluring

CHINA is the top growth destination for Asian enterprises which are keen to tap its rising middle class, a private report showed yesterday.

Companies in food and beverage, tourism, leisure and travel services aim to capture the increased spending power of Asia’s middle class, Singapore-based United Overseas Bank said in the report.

By 2030, Asia is expected to account for two-thirds of the world’s middle-class consumers, or about 3.2 billion people, with the majority of them living in China, UOB said in the report citing Brookings Institution.

Frederick Chin, head of group wholesale banking at UOB, said the survey reaffirmed that rising incomes create opportunities for businesses that can cater to the higher expectations and consumption patterns that come with increased affluence.

“Companies that can create the services and products to meet the rising expectations of Asia’s middle class have a unique opportunity to build sustainable and strong regional businesses,” Chin said. “They will be able to tap into a closely integrated and increasingly interconnected Asia for abundant and sustainable growth opportunities.”

The report also revealed that 40 percent of Chinese enterprises were considering moving from the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta because of rising production and labor costs to lower-cost emerging consumer markets such as Nanning, Chongqing and Chengdu in central and southwest China.

“This allows businesses to trim their costs and remain connected to Asia’s large middle class consumer base,” Suan Teck Kin, senior economist at UOB, said in the report.

China and the 10 Southeast Asian countries are set to increase trade volume to US$1 trillion by 2020 from US$444 billion in 2013. In 2002, trade volume totaled US$55 billion.




 

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