Seoul (VNA)🌱 – As trade competition between China and the UScontinues to intensify, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) israpidly emerging as the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s global manufacturing base andan important export market.

In a recent report of the Bank of Korea (BOK) on theRoK’s export characteristics and future prospects, the bank assessed that fiveASEAN countries (ASEAN 5), including Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, currently have the largest proportion of the RoK’s imports amongthe 10 ASEAN member countries. Since 2019, trade surplus between the RoK and the fivecounties has far exceeded the size of that with China. In 2023, the RoK’sforeign direct investment (FDI) in the region jumped to the second place onlyafter the US. According to the report, ASEAN is considered as thefinal transit point of the RoK’s exports before reaching other markets. Asof 2022, about half of the RoK’s exports to the five ASEAN member countries werefor on-site consumer goods production purposes, and investment from the RoK in thefive countries had also increased sharply with export trade flows. The RoK’s exports to ASEAN 5 are expected to upswingin the coming time, thanks to factors such as the continued recovery of theinformation technology (IT) economy, faster-than-expected economic growth inthe US, and expanded investment in emerging countries.

 Besides, it not only directlybenefited from the economic recovery of ASEAN 5, but the faster-than-expectedrecovery of the US economy, along with the recovery of consumption in Europe, will contribute to increased exports from the RoK to the ASEAN region.

ꦛ ASEAN is increasingly emerging as a stable and robust global manufacturingbase, and the RoK’s competition with other countries ensures its expectedmarket share in the region will grow larger in the medium to long term. Competitionis expected to intensify not only in the intermediate goods sector but also inend-to-end consumer goods such as electric vehicles and batteries. This isbecause Chinese and Japanese companies are looking to ramp up production inASEAN countries, through the construction of factories to produce cars andbatteries for electric vehicles.

The BoK said that in order for exports toASEAN to grow stably in the future, the RoK needs to focus on improving thequality of intermediate goods as input materials for production, while payingattention to increasing exports of high-quality consumer goods, taking intoaccount the growth potential of ASEAN's population and consumer market./.