The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is central to Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy—with good reason. It is one of the fastest-growing economic regions in the world, with a sizable young, and increasingly affluent market, approaching 700 million people, and projected to become the world’s fourth largest economy by 2030.
According to the United Nations Centre for Trade and Development the number of startups that raised more than US$1-million in funding almost tripled, increasing from 652 in 2015 to 1,920 in 2021. This is much faster growth than India , Europe and the United States during the same period. Forbes projected that the combined valuation of Southeast Asia’s startups will increase from around US$340-billion in 2020 to an impressive US$1-trillion by 2025.