Mainland Southeast Asian Countries Research Articles

Economic Institution, Religion, and Economic Development: Confucianism and Economy in Vietnam after The Implementation of the Doi Moi Policy

Among the three borderline Mainland Southeast Asian countries, located in the Indochinese Peninsula, Vietnam has the best economic performance, compared to Laos and Cambodia. The GDP per capita of Vietnam reached US$4,163 in 2022, which was two times higher than Laos and Cambodia. While economic reform policies, political and economic institutions, and colonial history, are similar in all three countries, why does Vietnam have better economic development? Researchers pointed out the economic factors, specifically the positive effects of economic reforms on economic performance. Nonetheless, it is not convincing, while the economic reform in all three countries emphasized property rights, and encouraged decentralization, privatization, and marketization. This study suggested the religious factor of Confucianism in Vietnam that reinforce the effects of economic institutions on economic development, which leads to greater economic performance. The Confucian characteristics of emphasis on saving, education, and following the government's instruction and policies, support the government’s economic reform, which is conducive to economic development.

Forest disturbance process caused by the expansion of agricultural and construction lands in the border zones of Mainland Southeast Asian countries and their neighbors

Forest disturbance process caused by the expansion of agricultural and construction lands in the border zones of Mainland Southeast Asian countries and their neighbors

Emission growth and drivers in Mainland Southeast Asian countries

Mainland Southeast Asian (MSEA) countries (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam) are likely to become one of the next hotspots for emission reduction, since CO2 emissions in this area will have a two-thirds increase by 2040 due to rapid economy growth and associated energy consumption. As one of the most vulnerable areas to climate change, MSEA countries need to develop low-carbon roadmaps based on accurate emission data. This study provides emission inventories for MSEA countries for 2010-2019, based on the IPCC territorial emission accounting approach , including emissions from five types of fuels (i.e., coal, crude oil, oil products, natural gas, and biofuels & waste) used in 47 economic sectors. The results show that the emissions in MSEA countries are on the rise, with average annual growth rates ranging from 2.5% in Thailand to 19.3% in Laos. Biomass is one of the most important sources of carbon emissions, contributing between 11.8% and 76.7% of total carbon emissions, but its share has been declining in most countries, whereas the share of emissions from coal has risen sharply in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. We further examine the drivers behind the changes in emissions using index decomposition analysis. Economic growth was the strongest driver of growth in emissions, while population growth has only had a small effect on emission growth. Energy intensity varies widely across nations, but only significantly reduced CO2 emission growth in Thailand. The secondary sector considerable contributed to an increase in CO2 emissions in Laos and Vietnam, while the tertiary sector only moderately contributed to emissions in Thailand. Our study provides a better understanding of the composition and underlying factors of emission growth in MSEA countries, this could shape their low-carbon development pathway. Our results could also inform other emerging economies, which may become emission hotspots in the next decades, to develop low-carbon roadmaps, thereby contributing to the achievement of global climate change targets.

Trends in per Capita Food and Protein Availability at the National Level of the Southeast Asian Countries: An Analysis of the FAO's Food Balance Sheet Data from 1961 to 2018.

We aimed to analyze the temporal trends in the per capita food (kcal/day/person) and protein (g/day/person) availability at the national level in the Southeast Asian (SEA) countries from 1961 to 2018. To avoid intercountry variations and errors, we used a dataset derived from the FAO’s old and new food balance sheets. We used the joinpoint model and the jump model to analyze the temporal trends. The annual percentage change (APC) was computed for each segment of the trends. Per capita food and protein availability in the SEA countries increased significantly by 0.8% per year (54.0%) and 1.1% per year (85.1%), respectively, from 1961 to 2018. During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s the per capita food availability in mainland SEA did not change significantly and was less than 2200 kcal/person/day. Since the early 1990s, food availability increased appreciably in the mainland SEA countries, except for Cambodia, which has experienced the increasing trend from the late 1990s. Distinct from the mainland, maritime SEA countries showed an up–down–up growth trend in their per-capita food availability from 1961 to 2018. Food-availability growth slowed down for Brunei (since the mid-1980s) and Malaysia (since mid-the 1990s) whereas it increased for Indonesia (1.5% per year), Timor-Leste (0.9% per year), and the Philippines (0.8% per year). Per capita protein availability trends in the mainland SEA countries were similar to the countries’ per capita food availability trends. Since the late 1980s, Thailand and since the late 1990s, other mainland SEA countries experienced a significant growth in their per capita protein availability. Since the late 1990s, per capita protein availability in Vietnam increased markedly and reached the highest available amount in the SEA region, following Brunei and Myanmar. Per capita protein availability increased almost continuously among the maritime SEA countries, except for Timor-Leste. Marked inequality did exist between maritime and mainland SEA countries in per capita food-availability growth till the mid-1990s. Considerable increases in per capita food availability have occurred in most of the SEA countries, but growth is inadequate for Timor-Leste and Cambodia.

What Awaits Myanmar’s Uplands Farmers? Lessons Learned from Mainland Southeast Asia

Mainland Southeast Asia (MSA) has seen sweeping upland land use changes in the past decades, with transition from primarily subsistence shifting cultivation to annual commodity cropping. This transition holds implications for local upland communities and ecosystems. Due to its particular political regime, Myanmar is at the tail of this development. However, with Myanmar’s official strategy of agricultural commercialization and intensification, recent liberalization of the national economy, and influx of multinational agricultural companies, the effects on upland land transitions could come fast. We analyze the current state of upland land use in Myanmar in a socio-economic and political context, identify the dynamics in three indicator commodity crops (maize, cassava, and rubber), and discuss the state driven economic, tenurial and policy reforms that have occurred in upland areas of mainland Southeast Asian countries in past decades. We draw on these insights to contextualize our study and hypothesize about possible transition pathways for Myanmar. The transition to annual commodity cropping is generally driven by a range of socio-economic and technical factors. We find that land use dynamics for the three indicator crops are associated with market demand and thus the opening of national Southeast-Asian economies, research and development of locally suitable high yielding varieties (HYVs), and subsidies for the promotion of seeds and inputs. In contrast, promotion of HYVs in marginal areas and without adequate agricultural extension services may results in agricultural contraction and yield dis-intensification. The environmental impacts of the transition depend on the transition pathway, e.g., through large-scale plantation projects or smallholder initiatives. The agricultural development in upland MSA follows a clear diffusion pattern with transition occurring first in Thailand, spreading to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. While these countries point to prospects for Myanmar, we hypothesize that changes will come slow due to Myanmar’s sparse rural infrastructure, with uncertainty about tenure, in particular in areas still troubled by armed conflicts, and unwillingness of international investors to approach Myanmar given the recent setbacks to the democratization process.

Modelling and prediction of air pollutant transport during the 2014 biomass burning and forest fires in peninsular Southeast Asia.

During the dry season, from November to April, agricultural biomass burning and forest fires especially from March to late April in mainland Southeast Asian countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam frequently cause severe particulate pollution not only in the local areas but also across the whole region and beyond due to the prevailing meteorological conditions. Recently, the BASE-ASIA (Biomass-burning Aerosols in South East Asia: Smoke Impact Assessment) and 7-SEAS (7-South-East Asian Studies) studies have provided detailed analysis and important understandings of the transport of pollutants, in particular, the aerosols and their characteristics across the region due to biomass burning in Southeast Asia (SEA). Following these studies, in this paper, we study the transport of particulate air pollution across the peninsular region of SEA and beyond during the March 2014 burning period using meteorological modelling approach and available ground-based and satellite measurements to ascertain the extent of the aerosol pollution and transport in the region of this particular event. The results show that the air pollutants from SEA biomass burning in March 2014 were transported at high altitude to southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and beyond as has been highlighted in the BASE-ASIA and 7-SEAS studies. There are strong evidences that the biomass burning in SEA especially in mid-March 2014 has not only caused widespread high particle pollution in Thailand (especially the northern region where most of the fires occurred) but also impacted on the air quality in Hong Kong as measured at the ground-based stations and in LulinC (Taiwan) where a remote background monitoring station is located.

Remembering with Respect: History, Social Memory and the Cross-Border Journeys of a Charismatic Lue Monk

For over three decades, people's mobility in the borderlands of the upper Mekong region has been reactivated, but simultaneously regulated, by changing state policy. Since the 1990s greater regional cooperation between China and mainland southeast Asian countries in trade and development has resulted in massive and accelerated flows of culture, commodities, capital and information across the borders. This article traces the cross-border movements of one charismatic Buddhist monk, Phra Khru Weruwanpithak (1929–2005), which took place over two decades from the early 1980s to the beginning of the twenty-first century. I argue that this monk's journeys played a significant role in Theravada revivalism in the localities he visited, both in his hometown in northern Thailand, and in other Lue communities in the eastern Shan state of Burma and in Sipsong Panna in southwest China. The practical, religious and architectural activities undertaken by this border-crossing monk not only restored Theravada Buddhist sites in the region, but also created a new sense of place and belonging among the Lue, who have long lived across national borders in the upper Mekong region.

Protected areas in mainland Southeast Asia, 1973–2005: Continuing trends

Since the 1970s, protected area networks in mainland Southeast Asian countries have developed significantly to occupy 4–25 per cent of their respective national areas, located mostly in the mountainous domains of ethnic minority peoples. Through this process, regions that were only nominally part of national geobodies until the 1950s have become more territorially integrated. The complexity of the characteristics and geographical impacts of this territorialisation have yet to be grasped. As a step in this direction, we briefly outline a multilevel systems approach that usefully contextualizes these issues together with a historical and cartographical assessment of the evolution of protected area networks for Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Our main findings are intertwined. On the one hand, protected areas represent a new tool of state intervention in mountainous areas, clearly in keeping with past, notably colonial, actions. On the other hand, this evolution in state territorialisation and attendant power relations have disrupted, far more deeply than previous actions, the pre‐1970s sociogeographical organization in mountainous areas, where most of the region's residual forests remain.

Islam in Southeast Asia

This book is a revised version of the proceedings of a conference of the sametitle held in Singapore during 2002. The papers comprising this highly relevantand timely text cover topics from the history of Islam in Southeast Asiato Islamic doctrine, politics, civil society, gender, modernization, globalization,and the impact of 9/11. However, Islam and politics are the centralthemes, with special attention given to the challenges of the recent contextfor Southeast Asia’s Muslim-majority societies. As such, it is of interest toscholars of diverse fields, including history, political science, internationalrelations, religious studies, sociology, and anthropology.The introduction, “Understanding Political Islam Post-September 11,”criticizes the inequality and militarism of western-dominated globalizationand the violent responses of political Islam or radical Islamism. Clear definitionsof these pivotal terms used throughout the collection would sharpen theargument about the particular kind of political uses of Islam that the authorsview as a threat. The editors provide an adequate and enticing overview ofthis interesting collection of papers. However, it would be helpful toacknowledge that they focus on Malaysia and Indonesia, with the exceptionof one paper on the Philippines. Addressing the situation of Muslim minorities in the mainland Southeast Asian countries of Burma/Myanmar,Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, where they live under the hegemony ofBuddhist or communist majorities, would add an important comparativedimension ...

Sailing up the Map: A re-examination of constructs of Javaneseness in the light of new evidence

While Java's culture has extended to other parts of Indonesia and mainland Southeast Asian countries (on Angkor under Jayavarman II, for example, and on the Chams) it exerted even stronger influence on a more distant country, Japan. The encounter pre-dated Indianisation and was between the Jomon population of Japan – a decentralised population living by hunting, fishing, and gathering – and wet-rice growing Javanese immigrants who had an advanced and much more centralised political organisation and sophisticated technology, art and culture. We need thus to adjust our ideas about the antiquity of Javaneseness and the length of time this civilisation has been in contact with other cultures.