Challenges in the Asean markets include an uncompetitive business environment in the Philippines; dependence on low-wage, low-skilled foreign workers in Malaysia; and relatively less developed infrastructure and connectivity in Vietnam, the analysts said.
And Thailand has started to strategically move away from low-margin computer components, but is still the world's second-largest hard disk drive exporter, after China. Still, China's rise up the value chain - into cutting-edge technology such as electric vehicles, artificial intelligence and robotics - could open up more room for other Asian economies to expand in low and medium-value-add activities, it added.
"Supply bottlenecks in the West could be more important than demand," Nomura economists Rob Subbaraman and Rebecca Wang said, even as the pandemic fuels demand for the protective gear and work-from-home electronics produced in Asia.