ASEAN and Western Australia’s Economic Future

By Dr Jeffrey Wilson and Hugo Seymour

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will increasingly trade, invest and build regional value chains between themselves, and the involvement of other economic powers in Southeast Asia will only increase. For WA to be meaningfully engaged, relationships of genuine partnership need to be developed. ASEAN leaders need to view WA as a source of technical expertise across sector areas where demand is rapidly rising. WA businesses need to develop stronger knowledge of, and relationships with, the changing economic environment of contemporary Southeast Asia.

To advance this agenda, the Government of Western Australia and Perth USAsia Centre partnered to convene the inaugural Western Australia-ASEAN Trade and Investment Dialogue in November 2018.
 
Over the course of a full-day workshop, the group held extensive and in-depth discussion of these matters, moderated by experts from the Perth USAsia Centre. This report provides a summary of these discussions, and outlines practical and impactful policy recommendations to help augment trade and investment relations between WA and ASEAN.