Business leaders say they expect the Asean Economic Community (AEC) to play a major role in driving regional economic growth, a PwC survey shows.
The 18th annual global CEO survey covered 1,322 chief executives in 77 countries including 76 from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
"When the AEC is completely implemented by the end of this year, many chief executives expect it will help drive GDP growth for the whole region," said PwC Thailand chief executive Sira Intarakumthornchai.
Most Asean members are emerging economies attractive to foreign investors, he said.
The expanding market will lead to urbanisation that will encourage Asean governments to put massive investment into infrastructure projects to meet growing trade, which will increase consumer spending.
Thailand is expected to remain an attractive location as an Asean hub due to its relatively low cost of living and good infrastructure.
"But Thailand should not be satisfied and stay at this stage. In contrast, it should move on by investing more in infrastructure development to remain an attractive place for investment," Mr Sira said.
According to the survey, political instability and corruption remain major concerns in Thailand and the whole region. Another concern is a lack of skilled workers.
Mr Sira said Thailand would have only a short-lived advantage if foreign investors were able to manage Thai staff quite easily after the launch of the AEC.
"It would become a negative factor in the long term if those foreign investors could manage people in a complicated culture but find more skilled workers in Singapore or Malaysia. Then they would switch from Thai employees to other workers," he said.
Most Asean chief executives still see regional political conflict, inefficient tax collection and stringent laws and regulations as major obstacles that deter investors.
The survey also found that the most important factor that would help investors to succeed in doing business in the AEC was to find good partners who could access local customers easily.
Mr Sira is optimistic about the global economy this year.
"The US economy has improved as it seems like the US is about to raise interest rates in order to drain money back. Europe and Japan still continue to use quantitative easing to stimulate their economies," he said.