Southeast Asia’s fire market is set for fiery growth over the next couple of years, due to the region’s significant economic expansion, said Suwong Ratchawong, Fire Safety Technical Manager for Thailand at Siemens Limited, Building Technologies Division. “In some particular countries, growth is especially impressive
Southeast Asia’s fire market is set for fiery growth over the next couple of years, due to the region’s significant economic expansion, said Suwong Ratchawong, Fire Safety Technical Manager for Thailand at Siemens Limited, Building Technologies Division.
“In some particular countries, growth is especially impressive. These include Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines,” he said. “Those countries’ economies will grow this year and next few years.”
His observations are corroborated by data from various organizations. A recent survey from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development indicated that Southeast Asia economies will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.4 percent between now and 2018.
However, sanguine figures aside, there are still challenges that need to be overcome, with Ratchawong citing fierce competition in the region as one example.
“There are a lot of competitors in the (Thai) market, including local companies, other ASEAN competitors, and those from China,” he said, adding stepped-up competition inevitably drives down price and erode companies’ sales.
To respond to this intense competition, fire and safety manufacturers are focusing on products that are innovative and cutting-edge. Siemens, for example, has come up with a detector with a microprocessor inside that can make decisions on whether an alarm is real or false, Ratchawong said.
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