Business schools from the UK have joined forces with corresponding institutions from the Asia Pacific region.

The Association of Business Schools (ABS) and the Association of Asia Pacific Business Schools (AAPBS) have formed a strategic alliance which will enable them to co-operate on capacity building, joint events, research, publications, membership on committees and added value for each membership base.

The AAPBS represents business schools in 15 countries, including China, Australia, India, Japan and Singapore, while the ABS represents all UK business schools.

An ABS spokesman said the announcement comes at an exciting time for the organisation as Paul Marshall has recently taken over as chief executive and the ABS is also celebrating its 20th anniversary.

And Professor Angus Laing, chairman of the ABS and Dean of the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University, said: “This comes at a pivotal moment in ABS’ development. Business and management by its very nature is global and we, as an organisation, need to reflect this in our strategic plan, alliances and offerings to our membership. It is a very exciting opportunity indeed.

“Asia is the largest and most populous of the continents and has grown faster than any other region of the world. This, twinned with the globalisation of business and management education, is a powerful combination.

"This development will ensure that the UK and Asia have a closer bond that the business and management community will benefit from accordingly, as well as providing us with an unrivalled opportunity to develop new ways of working.”

Hirokazu Kono, the president of the AAPBS and Dean of Keio Business School, Japan, said: “It is my honour and privilege to convey my message as President of AAPBS, on the occasion of the relationship between ABS and AAPBS being tightened.

“It is a significant step forward to a firmer bridge between the UK and Asia-Pacific in the area of business research and education.

“AAPBS member schools need to elaborate on our own research on business systems in the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, there is a lot to learn from the management ways of the UK, which is one of the countries with the longest and most prestigious history in the world.

“I would like to express my gratitude to ABS for offering us a great learning opportunity and to ABS members for their efforts to realise this collaboration. I sincerely hope that our partnership will be a fruitful one for both organisations”.

The alliance follows years of cross-continent partnerships forged by individual business schools, most notably with institutions in China, and the two associations combined represent nearly 300 business schools and more than 500,000 business and management students.