Writing for Fortune Magazine, Curtis S. Chin, former US Ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, explains why Southeast Asia matters to US businesses. While all eyes were on the APEC Summit last week, Curtis believes attention should have also be paid to the annual East Asia Summit in Myanmar.

Curtis argues that this gathering is important to the US for many reasons:

1. It includes 10 member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who collectively are America’s third-largest Asian trading partner.
2. Together, these countries have a population of more than 625 million with an economy valued at $2.4 trillion.
3. US companies have invested more in 10 nations of ASEAN than in Brazil, Russia, India and China combined.

Rather than being caught up with Beijing’s stage-managed APEC summit or of the G20 meeting in Brisbane, Curtis contends that official Washington and more of America’s businesses must recognise that there’s much more to opportunity in Asia than in China alone. He goes on to  note that with “the US elections behind us, a revitalised White House and US Senate now have the chance to show that Washington can work in a bipartisan manner in support of strengthening economic relations with Southeast Asia as part of an Asia-wide strategy that goes beyond a narrow China focus.”

Click here to read how Curtis believes this can be achieved.

For more information, or to book Curtis S. Chin as a keynote speaker for your conference or event, please contact Leo von Bülow-Quirk at [email protected] or call 0044 (0) 20 7792 8000.