Trade corridors play an important role for Sri Lankan corporates looking to expand their businesses beyond Sri Lanka and push for exponential growth.
Knowledge of these markets is essential for businesses to thrive, said Stuart Rogers, Head of Wholesale Banking, HSBC Sri Lanka and Maldives.
He made these views to a new HSBC global report finds and added that the Navigator offers bank’s corporate customers up-to-date information and invaluable insights into critical offshore markets.
Fuelled by the region’s economic prospects and consumer confidence, Asian businesses are feeling positive about the trading environment, the new HSBC global report finds.
However, the survey also reveals that Asian companies’ upbeat outlook is not uniform across the region with pockets of pessimism, and to counteract heightened protectionism many Asian businesses are turning their attention to trade opportunities nearer to home.
According to the study, 77% of companies in Asia have a positive outlook on trade, broadly consistent with their global peers (78%). On balance, 80% of Asian businesses are confident that they will succeed in the current trading environment, though this feeling doesn’t translate to every market in the region.
These insights are part of HSBC’s Navigator: Now, next and how for business report - a global survey of more than 8,500 corporates across 34 markets around the world that gauges sentiment and expectations on trade activity and business growth. More than 3,300 companies in 12 markets in the Asia Pacific region took part in the Navigator survey.
The latest Navigator findings show that India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam score the highest in the world, with more than nine in 10 companies having a positive outlook on trade. Businesses in Malaysia join their neighboring markets at the top of the league tables with, again, more than nine in 10 firms citing strong potential to succeed in the current trading environment.
Stuart Tait, Regional Head of Commercial Banking, and Asia Pacific for HSBC, said: “Asian businesses are at a crossroads –buoyed by macroeconomics but concerned about geopolitics. Businesses are staying positive, but they’re also signaling that protectionism is a significant concern.”
While businesses in South and Southeast Asia are brushing away fears of protectionism, things in East Asia are not as rosy. As they depend heavily on both China and the US and face tough choices as the trade dispute drags on, companies in South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong are less positive and less confident.
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