Regional economic integration advancing in Asia: report

Regional economic integration has been advancing in Asia, according to a report released by the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) on Tuesday.

The BFA Asian Economic Outlook and Integration Progress Annual Report 2023 states that in 2021, global dependence on Asian trade in goods remained stable, and the trade dependence between Asian economies remained at a relatively high level. The status of ASEAN and China as hubs for trade in goods remained unchanged.

Most major Asian economies have increased their dependence on Asian factories over the past decade, according to the report.

"Asia has a significant advantage of producing competitive products in global value chains. Of the top 22 intermediate products from Asian factories in terms of export value, 21 have shown significant growth in exports, with electronic component products such as integrated circuits growing the fastest, at a growth rate of up to 28.8 percent in 2021," the report said.

In 2021, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 45 percent of global FDI inflows, reaching a record high of over 710 billion U.S. dollars, according to the report.

"Deepened financial integration in Asia has made regional economies more resilient against negative impacts from international capital flows. As of the end of 2021, the stock of global portfolio investment outflows in Asia was close to 11.7 trillion U.S. dollars," the report said.

By the end of 2021, Asian economies allocated 19.5 percent of their global portfolio investment to markets in Asia. Among Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) economies, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore had the highest level of portfolio investment allocation to the region, the report added.