Investors pour money into Asia

International investment flows into the Asia-Pacific markets is set to rise by more than 40 per cent by 2006 for the three preceding years, with market analysis firm Datamonitor proposing Singapore will end next year with the strongest growth rate in the region.

The UK-based research group states that such an exponential growth rate will push the amount of overseas funds invested in the region from US$748 billion ($971 billion) in 2003 to US$1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) in 2006.

Since 1999, an additional US$120 billion ($155 billion) in offshore assets have flowed into Hong Kong, compared to US$86 billion ($111 billion) into Singapore.

Despite this, Singapore's aggregate offshore assets are set to grow at a stronger annual rate of almost 14 per cent with estimations it will jump from US$327 billion ($424 billion) in 2003 to US$483 billion ($627 billion) in 2006.

This compares to an annual growth rate of 10.6 per cent in Hong Kong, where the offshore assets market is forecast to grow from US$421 billion ($546 billion) to US$570 billion ($740 billion) over the same period.

According to Datamonitor's Offshore Market Leader's Survey, the largest contributors to Hong Kong's existing overseas asset flows are Chinese and Japanese investors with the largest contributors to Singapore's current asset flows being Indonesian and Hong Kong investors.

Client assets are flowing from around the region, but only a handful of countries are contributing a significant sum to the asset flows into the two centres.

Non Asia-Pacific countries are thought to contribute to under 10 per cent of total asset flows into Hong Kong and almost 7 per cent into Singapore.

In terms of financial services, Datamonitor head of Asia-Pacific wealth management analysis Alan Shields said HSBC will continue to be the prevailing force in investment throughout the region.

Shields attributed this to the group’s strong branch network and “unrivalled presence in major feeder countries” for offshore asset flows.