Our ASEAN Market Advisory Group (MAG) works to set the strategic priorities of UK-based financial and related professional services firms’ engagement in the Southeast Asian region.
The UK’s financial and related professional services industry has strong links with the ASEAN region. From infrastructure financing to insurance, our members have been part of the region’s economic growth story through the years and are looking to further deepen connections with the fast-growing and dynamic bloc.
The ASEAN MAG, chaired by Cora McLaren, UK Managing Director and Head of International Subsidiary Banking, HSBC, provides guidance and advice on the issues of greatest priority for the financial and related professional services industry, and recommendations and advocacy to government and regulators on improving the trade and investment environment for UK-based businesses through the UK’s bilateral and plurilateral relationships in the ASEAN region.
Represented by a senior level group of trade and regulatory affairs specialists from the largest financial and professional services firms with an active presence in both Southeast Asia and the UK, ASEAM MAG serves as an umbrella for initiating and implementing projects that create new and lasting opportunities to increase trade and investment between the UK and ASEAN countries.
With robust trade in financial services between the UK and ASEAN and the UK’s appointment as the first Dialogue Partner to ASEAN in August in 25 years – and the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), , there are exciting opportunities for the MAG to work closely with policymakers to help shape the UK’s trade and investment policy in the region.
Our ASEAN work is closely aligned to that of our Liberalisation of Trade in Services (LOTIS) Committee. Through it we guide the industry’s objectives for trade and investment policy, including priorities for engaging the ASEAN bloc and the UK’s bilateral trade and investment relationships with ASEAN markets.
Priorities of the ASEAN MAG:
- Deepening networks between ASEAN and UK business and policymakers.
- Providing industry input into bilateral and multilateral government engagement.
- Enhancing cross-border trade and investment.
- Exploring opportunities for mutual understanding and knowledge sharing.
Thematic focus of the ASEAN MAG:
- Energy transition financing and blended-finance.
- Interoperability of sustainability disclosure standards and taxonomy.
- Digital economy.
- Cross-border data flow.
- Islamic finance.
- The development of capital markets.
- Insurance and re-insurance.
- FinTech.
Recent activity:
- Ambassador roundtable with H.E. Dr Desra Percaya, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the UK on the bilateral relations post elections and bilateral trade mechanisms.
- Energy transition roundtable with H.E. Rachmat Kaimuddin, Deputy Coordinating Minister for Transport and Infrastructure.
- Data localisation workshop on Indonesia Personal Date Protection Law (PDP), Vietnam Personal Data Protection Decree (PDPD), and implications for the industry.
- Industry roundtables and UK FRPS priorities paper in support of UK-Singapore Financial Dialogues.
- Work with the FCDO and Government of Vietnam on cultivating an international financial centre in Vietnam.
- Senior members roundtable with High Commissioner of Singapore to the UK Lim Thuan Kuan on the UK’s Indo-Pacific tilt and opportunities for trade and investment with Singapore and ASEAN.
- Webinar on the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) with Minister of State for Trade Policy Greg Hands and Deputy Chief Negotiator Lukas May.
- Assessment for HM Treasury of the principal elements that the industry would wish to be included in a Global Financial Partnership with Singapore.
- Provision of the industry’s priorities to HM Government for the UK’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with Singapore and Vietnam and on the UK’s accession to the CPTPP.
- Delivery of written evidence to the House of Lords International Agreements Sub-Committee on the final text of the UK-Singapore Free Trade Agreement and UK-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement (DEA).
- Input to the UK’s trade policy reviews with Indonesia and Thailand.
For more information about our ASEAN work programme please contact us.