MORE than two-thirds of businesses in the Philippines are planning to increase investments in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) region this year, an HSBC survey found.

Sixty-seven percent of the Philippine respondents in a poll covering the region's six largest economies said they planned to invest more inside Asean, compared to 61 percent looking at markets outside the region.

"Expansion into new Asean markets ranks as the top priority for businesses in the Philippines, ahead of improving customer experience," HSBC said.

Over four in five (85 percent) of the Philippine respondents expect intra-Asean trade to flourish this year, broken down into 46 percent expecting gains of up to 30 percent and 39 percent even more optimistic.

The remaining 15 percent said trade within the region was likely to remain at current levels.

Confidence about growing the business was high for the Philippines at 86 percent, although this was lower than the 90 percent seen for Singapore and Thailand.

Indonesia at 82 percent, and Malaysia and Vietnam — both at 75 percent — followed.

Growth in Asean, at 47 percent, was the top strategic priority in the Philippines, followed by customer service improvements at 43 percent.

Rounding out the top five were digitization (36 percent), international expansion (32 percent) and product development (31 percent).

As for areas of planned investment in Asean, 72 percent want to enter new Asean markets, 58 percent are planning new business lines, and more than half are also considering investments in technology (57 percent), sustainability (57 percent), and research and development (55 percent).

Macroeconomic uncertainty (41 percent) and rapid regulatory changes (31 percent) were tagged as the biggest barriers to expanding within Asean, followed by supply chain challenges (30 percent), domestic technological capabilities (26 percent) and local regulations (26 percent).

HSBC said these underlined the "importance of advice and support of a banking partner."

In line with this, the banking giant said that it was launching a $1-billion Asean Growth Fund to help companies looking to expand via digital platforms.

"It supports new-economy names, more established corporates, and nonbank financial institutions by assessing operating metrics tied to their cash flow-generative asset portfolio, rather than relying solely on traditional financial metrics," HSBC said in a statement.

The region's digital economy, said to be worth $218 billion last year, is expected to hit $600 billion by 2030.

"With a working population that is digitally native, increasing in size, and poised to consume more goods and services — especially on e-commerce — Asean has so much potential for growth," said Amanda Murphy, HSBC's head of commercial banking for South and Southeast Asia.

"We are delighted to launch our first-of-its-kind Asean Growth Fund and work with digital companies as they expand in the region and beyond," she added.

Mimi Concha, head of wholesale banking at HSBC Philippines, said that "with Filipino firms targeting to expand outside the country, HSBC Philippines is best positioned to support our clients in such growth aspirations."