As untapped markets in Southeast Asia become increasingly scarce, companies must find new ways to make their existing market relationships work better together. Across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), more integrated supply chains and increased investment are helping to bring economies closer together, while new digital technologies are making it easier to reach customers in different markets.

But the push to integrate also raises the question of how businesses can make the most of closer regional connections without losing sight of what makes each market unique. For global sourcing and distribution partner, SCG International, who have spent more than a century building expertise across ASEAN markets, finding the right balance means focusing on three priority areas: regional integration, low-carbon innovation and collaboration.

Operating at a regional level may help companies to coordinate production and transport more efficiently, but ASEAN is far from a homogeneous market. According to the World Bank, Singapore’s GDP per capita was around 36 times Cambodia’s in 2024, a signal of the economic diversity within the bloc. Plus, customer needs and operating conditions vary considerably, meaning that regional coordination must run parallel to local decision-making.

SCG, whose businesses span materials, chemicals and packaging, is applying that parallel thinking through its logistics venture, SCGJWD.

“ASEAN is becoming more connected, and the opportunity is to optimize capabilities across the region while remaining deeply connected to local markets,” says Thammasak Sethaudom, president and CEO of SCG. “SCGJWD is an important part of building competitiveness for the next phase of growth.”SCGJWD uses regional transport networks and shared logistics infrastructure while adapting its services to local need. The result is an approach that seeks to make goods movement more efficient across borders, without assuming the same delivery model will work everywhere.

For example, in Indonesia the SCG Barito joint venture is connecting road transport with inter-island shipping to navigate the country’s archipelagic geography. In Malaysia, meanwhile, a partnership with logistics group Swift Haulage has resulted in Swift Cold Chain, a 10,000-pallet cold-storage facility in Shah Alam to meet growing country demand for temperature-controlled logistics.

EAN markets transition towards a lower-carbon economy, the environmental impact of production is increasingly impacting where, and to whom, they can sell products.

The European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which came into full effect in 2026, has introduced carbon requirements for imports including cement, fertilizer, steel, hydrogen, iron and aluminium. For exporters, this creates an additional commercial imperative to rethink production methods and energy use, rather than treating decarbonization as a standalone environmental or compliance exercise.

“Sustainability is increasingly becoming a source of competitiveness,” says Sethaudom. “The transition to a low-carbon economy is not only about reducing emissions, but also about creating new solutions and long-term value.”SCG is responding by developing lower-carbon products and changing the processes that manufacture them. In Vietnam, for example, SCG Décor’s PRIME GROUP subsidiary has installed a biomass gasifier at its Pho Yen tile factory, replacing a portion of the coal previously used to generate thermal energy with biomass.

Businesses can evolve their operations, but how broader change is affected – whether that be through energy supply, waste management or reusing materials – relies on decisions made far beyond the factory gate.

“The transition requires collaboration,” Sethaudom explains. “By connecting businesses, governments, communities and technology partners, we can develop practical solutions that create impact and can be scaled across ASEAN.”Those solutions include support for Thailand’s Saraburi Sandbox, which brings government and industry together to address local decarbonization challenges. Its Public–Private–People Partnership (4P) model combines industrial expertise with public policy to effect change.

Likewise in Sukabumi, Indonesia, SCG is working with local authorities on a refuse-derived fuel (RDF) project exploring how processed municipal waste can replace conventional fuel in cement production. Neither project is a ready-made blueprint for the rest of Asia, but both demonstrate how local and regional collaboration can address the manufacturing challenges of our time.

EAN’s economies become more interconnected, the opportunity for businesses is to make better use of the capabilities and relationships they already have. And for those that can combine regional scale with local knowledge, while embedding sustainability into their operations, they may well be best placed to shape the region’s next phase of growth.