10 facts about the ASEAN and partner countries

This coming January, the Philippines will chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) after Malaysia successfully did the job in 2025. There are hundreds of meetings scheduled in a year, mostly Ministerial meetings, and meetings on the issuance of statements and declarations on various issues.

Here are 10 facts about the organization and the Philippines’ chairmanship of the association in 2026.

1. As an economic bloc, the ASEAN is huge, with a combined population of 686 million in 2024, the third most populous area in the world after India and China. The combined GDP size at purchasing power parity (PPP) values was $12.3 trillion, the fourth largest in the world after China, the US, and India. In power or electricity production, it has a combined size of 1,362 terawatt-hours in 2024, also the fourth largest after China, the US, and India.

2. The GDP growth of many member-countries is fast. Of the top 50 largest economies in the world, among the top six fastest-growing economies are ASEAN members —Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

3. When it comes to foreign direct investment (FDI) inward stock, Singapore is the favorite destination followed by Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam (see Table 1).

4. ASEAN’s main event for the year, the ASEAN Summit, is the gathering of all Presidents and/or Prime Ministers of the 10 member-countries who convene and sign the joint declarations. There are also many side events, like the ASEAN-US summit, the ASEAN-China, ASEAN-Japan, ASEAN-India, ASEAN-Korea, ASEAN-Australia, and ASEAN-EU summits, and the ASEAN-East Asia summit where Russia is among the participants. The presidents or prime ministers of those partner-countries will fly to Manila sometime in late October or early November for the event.

Table 2 focuses on the major ASEAN partners. For the purpose of brevity, I included only Germany among the EU countries. I added Taiwan as it is a major trade and investment partner of many ASEAN countries. For FDI, I used outward stock data to see which countries are the largest potential sources of FDI.

5. A notable thing about ASEAN partners which are also G7 member countries, like the US, Germany, and Japan, is that their economic growth slowed down after they became highly industrialized. In terms of GDP size from 2004 to 2024, during which time China’s GDP size expanded seven times, India’s expanded six times, and Vietnam’s expanded five times, the US, Japan, and Germany’s GDP sizes expanded only two times.

6. When it comes to power generation levels from 2004 to 2024, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, and India have expanded by two to five times. On the other hand, the US had increased its power supply slightly, while Japan and Germany even suffered a decline in their power generation (see Table 2).

7. The Philippines is in the company of dynamic, fast-growing Asian nations that attract more investments and business dynamism. Among the top 50 large economies in the world in the last three years (2023-2025), we had the third fastest growth at 5.4%, trailing India with 7.8% and Vietnam with 6.4%.

8. The Philippines’ FDI inward stock is the smallest among the ASEAN-6, but this expanded 10 times the initial level over the last two decades. There is room for further expansion as the ASEAN-6 itself is the focus of stronger FDI inward push, led by Vietnam and Indonesia.

9. The Philippines’ large and young population means we have a large number of producers and consumers, and a large pool of entrepreneurs and workers. We are the 12^th largest country in population size in the world.

10. The Philippines’ archipelagic geography can be a disadvantage when it comes to large-scale manufacturing and merchandise trade, but it can be an advantage in large-scale tourism. We just have to keep improving our infrastructure and reducing the unnecessary bureaucracy to attract more visitors and investors.

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the president of Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. Research Consultancy Services, and Minimal Government Thinkers. He is an international fellow of the Tholos Foundation.

minimalgovernment@gmail.com