Summary:
Greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) within the RCEP region has remained structurally uneven over the past decade, with ASEAN consistently functioning as the bloc’s central investment hub. Northeast Asia continues to dominate as the region’s largest source of outbound FDI, while ASEAN remains the preferred destination, patterns that hold both before and after the pandemic.
Highlights:
1. ASEAN remains the premier FDI destination, consistently attracting the largest share of Greenfield investment from both ASEAN and Northeast Asian economies, underscoring its role as a regional manufacturing base and diversification anchor.
2. Northeast Asia is the dominant investor, with outward FDI, especially toward ASEAN, forming the single largest flow within RCEP and reflecting deep production networks and strong multinational activity in the subregion.
3. COVID-19 triggered a sharp but temporary shift in the intra-RCEP FDI structure in 2020, marked by spikes in Northeast Asia ↔ Oceania shares and a notable drop in intra-ASEAN investment share.
4. Oceania’s role remains limited, with consistently small shares of inflows and outflows across the period, highlighting that RCEP’s investment patterns are overwhelmingly driven by ASEAN–Northeast Asia dynamics.
Article By BANH, Thi Hang
Graphic By HUANG, Yijia
ACI Perspectives 