Europe and the Americas, Asia-Pacific is the most optimistic in the world about the 2006 economy, according to a recent HSBC survey conducted with 4,000 businesses in Asia-Pacific.
Tahir Sadiq, CEO Pakistan at HSBC, said that in Pakistan, besides establishing of branches in different cities, the bank will be rolling out new tailored products for SMEs and MMEs this year to support these customers.
The survey also showed that small and medium businesses in the region have very high levels of international trading. Margaret Leung, General Manager and Global Co-head of commercial banking for HSBC, said: "It's heartening to see so much optimism for the economy among SMEs and MMEs in a number of locations in Asia-Pacific. These businesses are the engine of the regional and global economy, and HSBC is ready to support their business expansion plans."
The survey, implemented by TNS and the largest one ever undertaken by HSBC among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and middle market enterprises (MMEs), started in late 2005 and was completed earlier this year. The purpose was to find out how businesses feel about the current and future economic climate, as well as their involvement in international trading.
In the HSBC surveys, SMEs are companies with turnover up to US dollar 45 million and MMEs from US dollar 45 million to US dollar 1.3 billion.
In Asia-Pacific, nine countries and territories were surveyed. Thirty percent of the SMEs and 35 percent of the MMEs consider the current economy to be 'very good' or 'fairly good'. Forty-six percent of SMEs and 41 percent of MMEs expect the situation to get even better by the end of the year.
The Asia-Pacific outlook for 2006 was the brightest of the three regions. In the Americas, 36 percent of SMEs and 59 percent of MMEs describe their current economy as 'very good' or 'fairly good', with 36 percent of SMEs and 28 percent of MMEs expecting the situation to improve. In Europe, 29 percent of SMEs and 19 percent of MMEs consider their current economy 'very good' or 'fairly good', while 22 percent of SMEs and 32 percent of MMEs have a positive outlook on the coming year.
The HSBC survey also gauged the level of international trading among SMEs and MMEs. In Asia-Pacific, the SMEs that trade internationally range from 37 percent in Korea to 71 percent in Singapore. The figures are even higher among MMEs, ranging from 41 percent in Indonesia to incidences above 80 percent in Malaysia, India, Singapore and Taiwan.
SMEs in Asia-Pacific trade with all regions, but the majority takes place intra-regionally and substantially with mainland China. The situation is similar among MMEs, with companies in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China being most likely to trade outside Asia-Pacific.
For Europe, international trading by SMEs ranges from 30 percent in the UK to 53 percent in Turkey. The figures are higher among MMEs, ranging from 69 percent in Germany to 89 percent in Spain. For European SMEs, few trade outside of Europe, with the exception of the UK, and European MMEs in Germany trade more widely with countries in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa as well as with mainland China.
In the Americas, international trading by SMEs ranges from 16 percent in the US to 50 percent in Mexico. MMEs are more international in their trading, ranging from 21 percent in the US to 84 percent in Mexico. The majority of trading takes place within the Americas.
The HSBC Groups is one of the largest banking and financial organisations in the world. The Group has over 9,500 offices in 76 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa, serves over 125 million customers and has assets of US $1,502 billion at 31 December 2005.-PR