Philips Lighting announced the appointment of Alok Ghose as the Market Leader for ASEAN. Mr Ghose, who was previously Managing Director and Cluster Leader for Singapore, Malaysia and Exports, now leads the operations and the transformation in lighting for the Internet of Things within ASEAN.

According to the latest evaluation, the US $29.6 billion global LED lighting market is expected to reach up to  US $ 33.1 billion by the end of 2017. The credit for the appraisal goes to the regional lighting development as LED lighting accounts for 23% of total lightings in Europe, which is the highest across the world. Also, North America and China are the second and third highest absorbing regions respectively.

Aftermarket (AM) automotive lighting manufacturer TYC Brother recently held a shareholder meeting announcing its financial performance for fiscal year 2015, where the company revenue reached NT $15.05 billion (US $467.38 million), and net profit of NT $670 million setting a new record high over the last 12 years, reported Money DJ.

The rapid growth of Southeast Asia market has always been attractive to investors while local exhibitions create collaboration and partnership opportunities for foreign manufacturers taping into the market. This year, Energy efficient technologies were added to the LED Expo Thailand 2016 that took place from April 19-22, 2016 at IMPACT Exhibition and Convention Center in Bangkok, Thailand, including solar power, energy efficient products. Meanwhile, LED and lighting related exhibitions found exhibitors from southeast Asia, including Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan.

The four-day LED Expo Thailand 2015 lighting show organized by the Ministry of Energy, Electricity Generating Authority Thailand (EGAT), IMPACT Exhibition Management, MEX Exhibitions is positioned to becoming an exhibition platform for LED investors in the ASEAN region, said organizers.

LED lighting developed rapidly in Southeast Asia thanks to its infrastructure construction, which was promoted by the development and impact from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to LEDinside, a research subsidiary of global research institute TrendForce. ASEAN is an inter-governmental international organization gathering countries in Southeast Asia. Established in 1967, ASEAN covers a population of approximately 618 million people, covering a land area of 4.48 million km², with abundant natural resources, and it is one of the world's fastest growing economic regions.

Japanese conglomerate Panasonic has been a very active player in the Asian lighting market in 2014, having ventured into the Indian market and signing onto a World Heritage Site program with the Indonesian government in late December that year.

Manufacturers, who hope to leave the fiercely competitive Chinese lighting market and other mature lighting markets, are turning their attention to emerging Southeast Asian markets or even Russia, said Roger Chu, Research Director of LEDinside at LEDforum 2014 which took place in Taipei, Taiwan last month.

Thailand’s LED lighting market demands have increased since the government heavily promoted energy efficient lighting, while LED luminaire prices have dropped, according to a report by Economic Daily News.