Over 50% Of Asia Pacific Companies' Heads Willing To Boost Investment In Region - PwC

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th November, 2018) Fifty-one percent of CEOs and industry leaders in Asia Pacific plan to step up their investments in local and regional projects, the UK major consulting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), said in an annual survey for the 2018 APEC CEO Summit released on Thursday.

"Business leaders continue to project confidence in their growth prospects in the Asia Pacific region with a net 51% planning to raise investment levels, mainly at home as well as cross-border in other APEC economies, up from 43% two years ago," the statement on the survey results read.

The study showed that 35 percent of the respondents were "very confident" in revenue growth over the next year. The consulting company called CEOs from Thailand and the United States the most "upbeat" since 56 and 57 percent of them, respectively, said they were very confident about their future growth.

Meanwhile, China and Mexico demonstrated the confidence levels below the APEC CEO average.

"Sentiment readings over the course of June-July also make clear that the uncertainty being propelled by the succession of unilateral US trade moves are having a dampening influence on business sentiment across Asia Pacific," the study read.

The survey named Vietnam, China, the United States and Thailand the top five destinations for foreign investment by APEC business leaders in 2017.

When asked to name an economy with the right conditions to for the emergence of the next unicorn start-ups, the fast-growth start-up companies, beyond the United States and China, 31 percent of APEC CEOs named Singapore, 28 percent chose Japan and Hong Kong, 24 percent named Australia, while Canada and South Korea have been named by 23 and 21 percent of the respondents, respectively.

PwC received 1,189 valid responses from CEOs and industry leaders from 21 APEC countries for its survey. The study was conducted on May 10-July 16.

The APEC CEO Summit is held in Papua New Guinea between Thursday and Saturday.