Asian Economic Integration Research Articles

Food Security, FTA and Trade Protectionism in Asian Countries

Food security is the broad area of the food for the forth coming generation. Asia’s famous economic rise as the “global factory” over several decades was facilitated by outward-oriented development strategies and a multilateral approach, based initially on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and then its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO). Free trade agreements (FTAs), as trade-policy instruments in Asia, were largely absent in the region’s trade policy architecture during Asia’s economic rise. Four main factors underlie the recent spread of FTA initiatives in Asia: (1) deepening market- driven economic integration in Asia, (2) European and North American economic integration, (3) the 1997–98 Asian financial crisis, and (4) slow progress in the WTO Doha negotiations. Food security is mixed blessing because it is providing substitute domestic industrial and agricultural production and made a country more efficient for the production of particular product in international production for trade disruption and co-ordination failure.

Asian economic integration and maritime CO2 emissions

The Asian region is considered as the most thriving region in terms of economic integration at present. Given the fact that most of the Asian countries’ commodity trade relies on maritime transport, its economic integration is expected to affect the shipping activities and consequently maritime CO2 emissions. This study develops a novel and systematic analysis on the key driving factors through which trade liberalization can influence maritime CO2 emissions. Our simulation results suggest that, depending on the level of Asian integration, global CO2 emissions may slightly fall (ASEAN+3 FTA) or even rise (ASEAN+6 FTA). The reason for the latter is that the “trade scale effect” (higher emissions due to a significant increase in trade among participating countries) outweighs the “trade structure effect” and “shipment type effect” (lower emissions as a result of an increase in intra-Asia trade and a change in commodity composition). Finally, all countries involved in the Asian integration, except Japan, will experience an increase in maritime CO2 emissions. In particular, a relatively significant increase in the maritime CO2 emissions occurs in the developing Asian countries owing to substantial trade scale effect after removing their relatively high trade barriers.

Pengembangan Model Peningkatan Kompetensi Pekerja Domestik Indonesia di Malaysia

. ASEAN Economic Community is an ASEAN Economic Integration in free trade system all around ASEAN. Indonesia as one of ASEAN Country has a role to compete with other countries, but one of the problems is competitiveness issues. Unskilled domestic workers from Indonesia being the background of miscommunication, workers abuse and many criminality problems in Malaysia. But in fact, placing Indonesian domestic workers in other countries is the best solution to unemployment issues in Indonesia. This study aimed to analyze the problematic situations and create a model that may affect the competency strategies to increase the competitiveness of Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia. Data from the experts was analyzed using Rich Picture and The House Model. The result showed that in planning the vision for five years term is needed to Enhancing the relevant Governmental Authorities, Establishing the individual reputation and Collaborating between Government and agencies involved. This strategies had been formulated to increase the human resource competencies with Competency-Based Training (CBT). Training and development conducted in Indonesia before placement in abroad is the ways to build workers' quality and then could compete with domestic workers from the Philippines and other countries in Malaysia. The research findings are expected to have implications on government and institutions in the process competency based training models. The government was expected to make the findings as a reference for the Competency-Based Training (CBT) to Indonesian domestic workers fairly and effectively to support its competitiveness strategies.

ANALYSIS OF CENTRAL ASIA ECONOMIC INTEGRATION PROJECTS FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF CONVERGENCE HYPOTHESIS

In this study, Eurasia Region integration process will be investigated in theoretical and empirical terms. Potential impact of economic integration will be evaluated in the context of what needs to be done for successful integration. At this stage, a comparison will be drawn between the EU and the integration in the Eurasia. Later, an econometric analysis will be performed in the study; whereby Central Asia Economic Integration projects will be analyzed separately, and attempts will be made to demonstrate the results of the projects within the context of convergence hypothesis. After these, some solution proposals for integration will be presented.

Is the ASEAN Economic Community Relevant To Gen Y Professionals? A Comparative Study on Attitudes and Participation of Young Professionals in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam on ASEAN Economic Integration

The main objective of this study was to investigate the awareness and perception of young professionals in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam countries on the ASEAN Economic Community (hereafter, AEC). Data from a survey of 575 young professionals, with approximately equal distribution from each country, were collected in June and July 2015. Research findings revealed that the knowledge and understanding of the AEC among the Gen Y professionals were still marginal. Although they lack awareness, young professionals had a good impression and perception of the AEC in connection with important benefits for them individually as well as for their country. Finally, the study revealed that the Gen Y professionals showed some level of optimistic attitude that they could succeed in the AEC as they thought that they were quite well prepared, having sufficient skills to work or to do business in other ASEAN countries.

ASEAN’s initiatives for regional economic integration and the implications for maritime logistics reforms

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to estimate the economic impact of reducing logistics cost on the demand for port throughput in the context of Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) regional economic integration and to realize the potential economic gains of the maritime logistics reform in the region.Design/methodology/approach– The main part of this paper is to formulate conversion coefficients for containerized cargo to estimate the impacts of logistics reform on the demand for port throughput. These conversion coefficients, then have been used into a dynamic computational general equilibrium model using Global Trade Analysis Project database to explore the impact of logistics cost.Findings– The study demonstrates that logistics efficiency is a challenge for ASEAN economic integration, providing significant implications for maritime logistics reforms.Research limitations/implications– This study assumes uniform improvements of 5 and 10 percent in the logistics sector for all countries due to lack of detailed data on the logistics sectors in ASEAN countries.Practical implications– The findings of this study could help ASEAN policymakers for deeper understanding of efficient maritime logistics in realizing the economic gains from its regional economic integration initiatives.Originality/value– Although there are many descriptive studies on the importance of logistics efficiency in improving international competitiveness in a country or a region, these are not supported by quantitative assessment in the case of ASEAN. This study addresses the dearth of empirical evidence based on real data on trade and maritime cargo flows. This study contributes to highlighting that ASEAN countries should reform their logistics policies and practices.

A Computational Bayesian Method for Generalized Semiparametric Regression Models

To better understand the power shift and the U.S. role compared to China and others regional actors, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the East Asia Institute (EAI) surveyed people in six countries - China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesian, and the United States - in the first half of 2008 about regional security and economic integration in Asia and about how these nations perceive each other (Bouton et al., 2010). There exists latent variance that cannot be adequately explained by parametric models. This is, in large part, due to the hidden structures and latent stories that from in unexpected ways. Therefore, a new Gibbs sampler is developed here in order to reveal preciously unseen structures and latent variances found in the survey dataset of Bouton et al. This new sampler is based upon the semiparametric regression, a well-known tool frequently utilized in order to capture the functional dependence between variables with fixed effect parametric and nonlinear regression. This is then extended to a generalized semiparametric regression for binary responses with logit and probit link function. The new sampler is then developed for the generalized linear mixed model with a nonparametric random effect. It is expressed as nonparametric regression with the multinomial-Dirichlet distribution for the number and positions of knots.

Study on the Relevance of the East Asian Economic Integration Model and Participating Strategy of Korea: Focusing on the Comparative Analysis of TPP and RCEP

Study on the Relevance of the East Asian Economic Integration Model and Participating Strategy of Korea: Focusing on the Comparative Analysis of TPP and RCEP

Re-Emergence of the Asian Economies: Will History Repeat Itself

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Studies on Economic Effect of East Asian Economic Integration and Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Application of CGE Model and Game Theoretical Approaches

Studies on Economic Effect of East Asian Economic Integration and Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Application of CGE Model and Game Theoretical Approaches

ASEAN and the Limits of Regionalism in Pacific Asia

After the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) of 1997-99, a dominant orthodoxy arose both in regional diplomatic circles and the regional scholarship that analysed it, that the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) had established the institutional basis both for South East Asian as well as East Asian political and economic integration. Thus, at the beginning of the new millennium, Peter Katzenstein declared that East Asian regional integration was “an idea whose time has come.” Indeed, it was widely assumed that an expanded ASEAN machinery would “socialize the [East Asian] region with the same norms and values that have proved successful in Southeast Asia.”In view of these large claims about ASEANs apparent centrality to regional security in Southeast Asia, and its procedurally driven transformation of foreign relations across East Asia in the twenty-first century, the uncertainty among its diplomats and its academic admirers in the context of China’s rise and growing regional assertiveness represents something of a puzzle. To unravel this puzzle, we shall argue that ASEAN remains what it essentially was from its inception, namely an association of weak states created to achieve the limited purpose of maintaining regional order. Yet, even in this endeavour the arrangement has proved of limited effectiveness. Mean-while, its attempt to export its norms to the wider region have rendered it vulnerable to the incursion and hegemony of more powerful regional actors. To explore the limitations of Asian regionalism, the paper will focus on 2 areas of ASEAN policy formation since the AFC: the attempt to build an integrated ASEAN economic community and to establish a framework to address overlapping claims to the South China Sea. The dissonance between ASEANs rhetoric and its limited achievements in these areas leaves it increasingly sidelined by the evolution of great power rivalry in the Asia Pacific.

ASEAN economic community and the regional automotive industry: impact of ASEAN economic integration on two types of automotive production in Southeast Asia

This paper investigates the impact of the on-going economic integration in the ASEAN region on the regional automotive industry. Investigation is not limited to global automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), but includes local assemblers. While ASEAN has implemented policies that promoted the creation of supply chains between member states to further economic development, it will be highlighted how the forthcoming deeper integration policy dubbed ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015 is already influencing industry development. The question is if the politically induced economic integration in ASEAN and industrial policies of individual member states are going to lead to envisioned development of the automotive industry or if this development may be confined to established producing countries. Specifically, the question will be traced if production in all countries is going to develop towards fully integrated production or if companies are going to practice minimal localisation in peripheral markets such as the so-called CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam), so that these countries get locked in production that is basically assembly of imported components or manufacturing of intermediate and labour-intensive components.

The Political Context of Economic Cooperation in Asia: The Relation between Trade Integration and Security Rivalries

This article lays out the overarching context of economic cooperation in Asia and discusses the two big questions: the strategic consequences of economic integration in Asia and the economic consequences of the lack of a security consensus in Asia. The rise of China is central to both. China’s economic rise has led to the rapid growth of Asian economic integration as well as given rise to security rivalries, both land and maritime, all around its borders. The article examines whether economic integration will mitigate security rivalries or whether the absence of a regional security arrangement instead of the hub-and-spokes US-centred security system in the Asia-Pacific will impede the growth of economic and political cooperation. Much depends on the unpredictable and evolving interaction of Chinese behaviour and the US and Asian responses to it.

ASEAN Economic Performance, Institutional Effectiveness, and Foreign Direct Investment

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is considered to be one of the most important forces of economic growth and globalization. Many ASEAN economies have only a small domestic market; they are heavily reliant on international trade and FDI. Recent studies on cross-border investment indicate the importance of domestic economic performance and institutional effectiveness (including government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and property rights protection) in attracting FDI. The result from a cross-national empirical analysis, in this study, also confirms the significant impact of macroeconomic performance and institutional factors on FDI flows into developing countries. In this paper, it is argued that, with the exception of Singapore, most ASEAN countries are afflicted with relatively poor institutions for good governance, with low government effectiveness, and poor regulatory quality and rule of law. This relatively poor institutional quality may exacerbate the effects of external threats. As higher economic growth and better economic integration in other regions may divert FDI flows into ASEAN countries, their appropriate response is to improve institutional quality so that the share of FDI will increase in the total FDI inflows. Improving the institutional environment among ASEAN member countries should, therefore, be an important goal of ASEAN economic integration.

Sino-Korea Free Trade Agreement and Asia-Pacific economic integration: the China perspective

As an important element of Asian economic integration, a Sino-Korea (hereinafter referred to as South Korea only) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is currently under negotiation. This paper analyses the potentially sensitive issues that might hinder the progress of the negotiations. We believe that a Sino-Korea FTA would exert great pressure on Japan, which may push forward China—Japan—Korea FTA negotiations. Economic integration in Northeast Asia will promote RCEP and FTAAP as well. Therefore, the Sino—Korea FTA should be viewed from a strategic perspective, and could be an important step towards Asia-Pacific economic integration.

Asian Integration and Its Implications for the EU “Post-Doha”

Asian economic cooperation and integration has become a key fixture of the global economic landscape in the 21st century. Over the past decade Asian economies established a large number of bilateral and a few sub-regional free trade areas that have facilitated the rise in intra-regional trade and regional production networks. More recently, the region has been active in embracing regionwide accords. The EU has been essentially left out of this process. This paper considers the economic costs of EU exclusion from the economic cooperation initiatives in Asia. It finds that, although on the whole the effects will be small, the EU could face significant trade diversion at the commodity level.

The Energy Factor in Russia’s “Asia Pivot”

For a variety of economic and geostrategic reasons, Russia is now again attempting to increase its efforts to develop the economy of its eastern territories and integrate more deeply into the rapidly developing Asian regional economies. 1 As the Obama Administration announced its “Asia Pivot” in 2011, Russia’s own “Asia Pivot” was marked by hosting the 2012 APEC Summit in Vladivostok. 2 Historically, Russia has been a primarily European-focused power until the Cold War confrontation with the United States. Engaging in Asian affairs does not come naturally to Russia’s elite, but Vladimir Putin is keenly aware of the shifting global economic balance of power to Asia, and he understands that Russia’s integration there is essential for its successful long-term development. It is true that during the latter Soviet period Moscow was more focused on Asia because of the emergence of China as a perceived strategic threat, but this engagement with the region was almost entirely on military-strategic terms. Now the currency of power has shifted to some degree from military to economic prowess. And just as energy – mainly oil and gas – has been Russia’s principal economic comparative advantage to the West, Russian economic integration in Asia leads with its energy resources.

Negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Evaluation and Implications for East Asian Regionalism

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement seems to have reached a crossroads: it could either be a building block toward achieving economic integration in Asia and the Pacific, or trigger the formation of two large trade blocs which will work independently of one another. When the Government of Japan announced its participation in the TPP negotiations in March 2013, the partnership began to attract greater interest from other East Asian countries. This paper analyzes the progress and major issues regarding the current TPP negotiations which are being led by the United States, and draws implications for East Asian economic integration.

Response Asymmetry in Spillover Volatility: An Empirical Study in the Indonesia and Singapore Stock Market

In 2015, when the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is achieved, ASEAN will have a single market in which a freer flow of goods, services, investment and the capital flow among the nations in this area will take place. Many empirical studies have shown that the development of the integration of the capital market has resulted that the movement of the prime indicator of the stock market in a certain country can be transmitted easily and immediately to another country’s stock market (see for instance: Kanas, 1998; Rigobon and Sack, 2003; Savva et al., 2009; Ingyu, 2011). Facts have also shown that the global economic crisis of 2008, which at the beginning was initiated in the United States, within a short period has spread over to most of the hemisphere, especially to the developed countries which are economically and financially very integrated with the United States. In Asia, many countries have endured the negative side of the crisis, although the degree of the side effect has more variance among the countries, depending on the domestic economic condition and the degree of the integration of the country with the world economy. Singapore is a country which was at the beginning the most seriously affected by this crisis. This is not surprising because Singapore is a country which is fully integrated with the global market with regard to the business and finance. As a consequence, the country’s economy is very sensitive towards any economic shock initiated from outside. In the context of the ASEAN economic and financial integration, a shock that exists in a country can easily and quickly spread to other countries. Some people explained that Response Asymmetry in Spillover Volatility: An Empirical Study in the Indonesia and Singapore Stock Market

BarroR and LeeJ‐W. 2010. Costs and Benefits of Economic Integration in Asia. (Manila: ADB)

BarroR and LeeJ‐W. 2010. Costs and Benefits of Economic Integration in Asia. (Manila: ADB)