features
US and the sovereign debt in the Eurozone has dampened business sentiment. SEA and East Asia economies, despite having a significant export component are expected to grow in the range of 4 to 5 percent (excluding China). However, one needs to be mindful of downside risk. As such, the major challenge for 2012 for both public and the private next year is to find the right balance to stimulate growth and tackling the various challenges from the uncertainties. IAA: How do you plan to overcome them? JF: We will continue to drive growth leveraging on sectors that remains robust and keep improving our overall competitiveness such that we can support our customers as they strike a balance between growth and tackling the economic uncertainties. IAA: What is the best business strategy to adopt during a troubled economy? JF: The fundamental strategies remain. As competition increases in all of our markets, one of our big challenges will be to stay competitive by improving our performance. This applies to the way we manage our talent, our operations, our customer relationships, our research and development activities, and much more. IAA: Which countries in Southeast Asia show the most potential for your business? JF: The population in Southeast Asia is growing, and there are big opportunities in oil and gas, mining, energy efficiency, and alternative energy. Singapore is second in the global competitive index, according to the World Economic Forum, and Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand and Indonesia outranks other large emerging markets like India. Vietnam also holds much potential for sourcing, and adds to our region’s competitiveness. Power shortages in Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines mean growth opportunities for ABB. IAA: What trends do you foresee in your industry over the next 12 months? JF: We see many opportunities with urban growth, especially in emerging economies, which will have an impact on transport, resource and energy demands. Interest in renewable energy and energy efficiency will continue to grow. Digitisation of information and growing data use will also mean we can play a part in reducing energy use of datacenters. ENQUIRY NO. 8806
52 industrial automation asia | Dec 2011/Jan 2012
Didier Lacroix is the senior VP of International Sales & Services at Cognex. He gives IAA his personal take on what the next 12 months holds for Cognex and the industry. IAA: What major challenges do you foresee for your industry over the next 12 months? Didier Lacroix (DL): The global business climate in 2012 is expected to be a challenging one. With uncertainty over the outcome of Europe’s debt crisis, companies are expected to enter the new year with caution. Despite this, World Bank analysts are predicting that East Asia will continue to experience strong growth despite weakening external demand, according to Voice Of America. In a slower-moving global market, companies should take the opportunity to upgrade existing manufacturing capacity. This puts them in a much better position to meet the surge in market demand when the global economy recovers. IAA: What countries in Southeast Asia show the most potential for your business? DL: Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand are among our most important markets in Southeast Asia. We have established a local presence via our system integrator partners in each of these countries. Our plans are to continue strengthening these areas so as to ensure that our existing clients in these countries continue to be closely supported. IAA: What trends do you foresee in your industry over the next 12 months? DL: Our vision products find applications in almost every industry, ranging from electronics and automotives to the highly regulated food and pharmaceuticals sectors. With greater demands for better quality control and higher production output, vision systems for QC, traceability and guidance (for robotics) will continue to find increasing opportunities in nearly every sector. For industries that need to ensure that stringent standards of product safety are adhered to — such as food and pharma — automated vision technology plays an important role in ensuring supply chain traceability/integrity as well as production quality. ENQUIRY NO. 8807