Anoma Baste I MCR I Director Global Studio I Space Matrix.
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I recently read a thinkpiece by Jane Fraser, Citi’s CEO, arguing that the world continues to choose America for its investment opportunities. Why? The U.S offers a combination that is difficult to replicate: deep capital markets, scale, innovation and the continuous ability to adapt and create opportunity.
But Fraser’s stance made me ask a question more relevant to those of us who work across the Asia-Pacific region (APAC). If America remains such a powerful place to invest, why are American and European companies pouring billions into Asia?
I believe these are actually complementary investment strategies. An investor can believe America is the best place to raise capital, develop IP and build technology while also believing that countries like Singapore or Malaysia are where its next phase of growth needs to happen. Notably, emerging Asian markets received approximately $644 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2025, with South-East Asia being the largest recipient subregion.
This is simply capital following opportunity. For American and European countries looking to invest, the question is “Which Asian markets do we need to be embedded in if we want to participate in the next 10 to 20 years of global growth?”
‘Asia’ May Be The Wrong Unit Of Analysis
We talk about an “Asia investment strategy” as though the continent is one homogeneous market. After nearly two decades of working across the region, I have found that every market plays a different role.
• Singapore: This country is focusing on APAC leadership, finance and regional coordination, which has created a demand for regional headquarters, client-facing environments and collaboration hubs.
• India: Here, businesses are prioritizing talent, technology, global capability centers, innovation and domestic growth. The workplace has become a vital tool for attracting talent, fostering innovation and driving performance.
• China: A well-established global participant, China centers on market access, manufacturing depth, research and development (R&D) and local innovation. These priorities require workplaces that effectively support highly localized businesses.
• Malaysia And Vietnam: These countries prioritize manufacturing, technology and supply-chain diversification, as well as corporate environments that are increasingly connected to their operational ecosystems.
• Japan And South Korea: These East Asian markets are focused on technology, sophisticated customers, specialist capabilities and R&D. They require high-value knowledge and innovation environments.
As someone embedded in the global workplace design-and-build industry, I asked myself, “If India’s investment thesis is fundamentally different from Singapore, China or Vietnam, why do some assume the workplace strategy will be the same?” It clearly isn’t.
The Strategic Roles Of India, China And The Evolving Network
Despite at-large discussions of decoupling supply chains, China cannot simply be removed from the Asian growth equation. Its manufacturing depth, infrastructure, supply chains, technical capabilities and domestic market remain extremely difficult to replicate. At the same time, geopolitical tensions have made U.S. and European companies much more conscious of concentration risk. Supply chains are being redesigned as manufacturing is diversified and new talent centers are developed.
Increasingly, I see strategies that include investing in China, India and countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Companies are going to China for its obvious advantages; India for talent, technology, domestic growth and global capability; Singapore for regional leadership; and Malaysia and Vietnam for selected manufacturing, technology and supply-chain ecosystems.
The Office Should Follow The Business Case
The future multinational in Asia may look less like a traditional hub-and-spoke organization and more like a network. FDI gets reported in billions of dollars, but the investments are more than money. They become factories, regional headquarters, laboratories, innovation hubs, R&D facilities, data centers, capability centers and corporate offices. And every one ultimately requires people.
The workplace isn’t simply the physical consequence of an investment decision. Done properly, it becomes one of the mechanisms through which that investment succeeds. For example, if you establish headquarters in Singapore to connect leadership, customers and markets, the workplace needs to enable those things. If you build a 5,000-person capability center in India for specialist talent, then attraction, retention, learning and employee experience will be critical. If you expand in China for customers, R&D and local innovation, the workplace has another purpose again.
The office cannot be separated from the business case that created it. But too often the sequence for expansion is find the building, calculate the headcount, apply global standards, design the office and move people in. The better approach is asking, “Why are we investing in this market, what capabilities should we build, who are the people we need and what environment will allow them to perform?”
APAC Needs Its Own Playbook
Historically, multinational companies developed workplace standards in the U.S. or Europe, then rolled them out across other regions. There is value in global consistency, but what works in New York, London or Paris won’t automatically work in Bengaluru, Shanghai or Dubai.
Asia contains some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, digitally sophisticated populations, diverse cultures and rapidly evolving workplaces. So perhaps it should become one of the places where standards are created.
When it comes to global investment, several stories can be true at once. America can remain extraordinary for capital and innovation. Europe can retain its industrial, engineering and technological strengths. And Asia can become increasingly important for customers, talent, manufacturing, innovation and growth.
Capital doesn’t simply go where companies feel most comfortable. It goes where they believe their future will be. And once it gets there, the questions become more human. What capabilities do we need? What talent will deliver them? What environment will allow those people to do their best work?
Because when capital crosses borders, business strategy becomes place strategy. And place strategy eventually becomes a people and workplace question. And I believe that is the part of the Asian investment story we haven’t been talking about enough.
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