His audience is interested in Southeast Asia. This sounds like a verbatim transcript of a speaker's words. The speaker is speaking good, careful, spoken English, but is letting his train of thought jump around just a little bit. The speaker's organization mainly serves Central America. The speaker's organization is expanding into Southeast Asia. The language that follows the "but" means he is going to introduce something contrasting. Imagine him saying: "The main geographical area we serve is Central America, but we are currently expanding into Southeast Asia." That's clear. Imagine him saying: "The main geographical area we serve is Central America, but I know that isn't your main area of interest." That's clear. Imagine him saying : "The main geographical area we serve is Central America, but I know that isn't your main area of interest. Most of you are interested in Southeast Asia. However, I have something to talk about that is will interest you, because we are expanding into Southeast Asia." Still clear? Now shorten it and move the words around a bit.

The sentence can be a bit confusing when taken out of context yet there are still clues as to the speaker's meaning. Normally -- that is, grammatically -- "this" without a noun following it (this book, this subject) would refer to the subject that just preceded. Thus, "this" area of interest grammatically should refer to Central America. Yet it does not because that would make no sense. Why would he tell his audience that his company is expanding to Southeast Asia if the audience was interested in Central America? Moreover, he does so at the beginning of his talk so obviously the information is important to his audience. This is an important clue why "this ...area" must refer to Southeast Asia. Note that the speaker refers to an area of interest "for most of the audience today" without naming it because it is so obvious to everyone in the room. We can assume that the topic of the larger conference/meeting is southeast Asia and/or its location (perhaps the venue itself) is in southeast Asia. Otherwise, why would the speaker make a point of noting that his company is expanding into Southeast Asia to an audience interested in Central America? Thus, the speaker notes his company's previous experience in Central America but makes his presentation relevant to the audience by noting that his company is expanding into Southeast Asia. Admittedly, the speaker's statement is not grammatically clear. However, as spoken speech, it would be readily understood by the audience because they would all share the knowledge and assumption that they are there to hear about something related to Southeast Asia. In short, CONTEXT is extremely important in understanding spoken speech and can carry more weight than grammar rules. :)

Hi David It is a confusing passage but I do hear people speak that way. He could have said it this way: Now first I should explain that the main geographical area we serve is Central America. I understand this is the area of interest for most of the audience here today. But we are currently expanding into Southeast Asia. So the speaker means CA is what the audience likes, but he is going to talk about SA. I hope that helps! Nicolas

¿Are you sure this is the correct sentence? Because "But, and,..." doesn't sound correct to me.