International Monetary Fund's latest world economic outlook predicted the 2021 global economic growth at 6%, a revised up from 5.5% with the recovery led by large economies including the United States and China.

Along with economic improvement,   the projections for global foreign direct investment   (FDI)   flows are expected to bottom out in   2021 and recover some lost ground.   The current projections showed that FDI will increase a further   15-20% in 2022 or up to US$1.4 trillion, according to the World Investment Report 2021. On its baseline forecast, the FDI will largely recover by the end of 2022, which assumes on-going improvement in the health and economic situations over the next two years.

In Asia, FDI growth is expected at a 5-10% increase year-on-year in 2021. Asia was the only region resilience with the FDI in 2020, thanks to its growing market, extensive regional and global FDI linkages as well as its open investment climate despite the global life-threatening disease.

Alexander Feldman, chairman of US-Asean Business Council wrote in Investing in Asean 2021/22 publication that Asean currently has the world's third largest labor force, and its middle class is expected to more than double in size from 135 million to 334 million by 2030, making Asean a powerful engine for long-term economic growth. The region's favorable demography, new trade agreements, and a forward-looking economy are all factors that facilitate greater US-Asean investment.

Thailand has maintained its well-executed role as an indispensable springboard for market expansion into emerging CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam), due to its geographical advantage, strong industrial development, expertise of Thai industries, abundant raw materials and skillful workforces, suggested several research papers.

CLMV people have been vigorously awake to the centrality of health issue in their daily life as proven from a significant increase in searches for healthcare data in Google's Year in Search 2020.

FMCG Gurus published in mid-2020 that the functional beverage trend will gain momentum in 2020 and beyond as consumers become more conscious about their health due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The global functional beverage market is expected to recover and grow at around 8.07% per annum from 2021 to reach $158.28 billion in 2023, according to data published in June by Research and Markets.

On regional perspective in Asia Pacific and Asean, the similar trend shows the rise of functional drink as the substitute to sugary non-alcoholic drink.

Ichitan Group Plc, has envisioned the prospect of growth in RTD beverage in the region through the investment in its one-of-a-kind production facilities in Thailand that will assist in market expansions throughout Asean, especially the emerging CLMV markets.

These emerging markets have long-term potential with their projected growth between 3.5-7% in 2022, rich of natural resources and large number of workforce. Regarding beverage industry in these emerging economies, the overall growth is foreseeable following the expansion of middle class population, their higher purchasing power and health consciousness.

Cold aseptic filling technology is the most advanced production technology perfectly suit the production of variety of beverages such as tea, coffee, diary product, fruit juice, vitamin drink, energy drink and etc, especially the production of vitamin beverage, thanks to its only 12-second sterilization that allows better retention of vitamin nutrients than traditional hot-filling method.

Ichitan offers business partners to save at least 80% of trial production cost by collaborating to produce prototype products at the company's pilot plant featuring the availability of 200 types of raw materials to be used in developing innovative products and customized solutions. All products will be inspected according to global standards with one-year tracing period.

The auto warehouse has the capability of managing the entire production life-cycle from raw materials till finished product as they are kept in storage through the precision of a highly advanced computerised system.

By utilising the latest cold aseptic filling technology, Ichitan produces as many as 1.5 billion bottles and 200 million cartons per year, making its green factory to achieve the highest production volume in Thailand under a single roof.