Economic Development with Improved Conditions of Employment and Reduced Inequality: What Choices Does ASEAN Have in the Medium and Long Term?

Abstract

The countries of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) have abundant natural resources, highly developed historical cultures and, so far as coastal regions are concerned, long histories of trade within the region and with China, Japan, India, and Europe. In recent decades the economies of Singapore, Malaysia,1 and Thailand have developed rapidly through participation in global production, trade, and financial networks. Other longstanding members of ASEAN, the Philippines and Indonesia, have followed this path with more limited success. Newer members of ASEAN—the so-called CMLV group comprising Cambodia, Myanmar, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam—had lower incomes and little participation in global trade when they joined ASEAN in the 1990s but have subsequently started to open their economies, embarking on the long process of building infrastructure and institutions required that link them more broadly and effectively into the global economy.