Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Geoff Wade
In 2010, as ASEAN celebrated the 43rd year of its existence as a regional organisation, signs of its division became increasingly manifest.
Despite repeated urging for members to move towards the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, it is becoming obvious that most of the mainland Southeast Asian states (CLMV) see their political and economic futures tied to China far more than to their insular Southeast Asian erstwhile brethren. Read more…
Author: Mutsuyoshi Nishimura, Advisor to the Cabinet, Government of Japan
The international approach to climate change is currently based upon the arbitrary ambitions of nations.
Although these bottom up attitudes have propelled huge climate investment, no goals have been set in relation to climate stability. Future generations will surely ask why such investments did not achieve climate stability. Read more…
Author: Jiro Okamoto, ANU
Mechanisms for political and economic integration and cooperation activities in East Asia have taken on a highly flexible character in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Rather than moving toward a coordinated ‘grand design’ of regional integration, the region has shifted toward a dynamic ad hoc method of integration based on diverse policy preferences and within the constraints of extra-regional partnerships. Read more…
Author: Bornali Bhandari, NCAER
Looking back at 2010, what is the biggest hurdle in the Indian growth story that occurs in myriad reports and research? The one word answer is ‘land’.
Increased economic growth has only increased the many alternative uses of land, such as for agriculture, industries, infrastructure (roads, railways, power, telecom, mining etc), building houses, malls and other economic activities. Read more…
Author: Sandra Tarte, USP, Suva
In 2010, Fiji marked 40 years of independence. Significantly, the Prime Minister, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, chose to celebrate the anniversary at the World Expo in Shanghai, rather than at home.
In many ways, this choice underscored the focus of Fiji’s leadership in 2010, which was to diversify and broaden international partnerships. Read more…
Author: Andrew Sheng, University of Malaya and Tsinghua University
There are a lot of global architecture, theoretical, and micro-institutional incentives issues that Asia must address in the wake of the GFC.
Conventional wisdom is not helping to solve the dilemma of a global market that is still regulated at national levels. Read more…
Author: Yoon Young-kwan, Seoul National University
The year 2010 was the most turbulent year in inter-Korean relations in the recent decade.
Though the relationship between the South and the North has begun to deteriorate since the start of the Lee Myung-bak administration in 2008, there was a hope for improvement until around March 2010. Read more…
Author: K Kesavapany, ISEAS
Last year was not a year of dramatic change for Singapore. It was, instead, a year for fine-tuning existing public policies to meet the impending and fluid economic and political challenges of globalization.
One of the key decisions the Singapore government made this year was the reduction of the number of foreign workers admitted into the city-state. Read more…
Author: Evelyn Devadason, ANU
Malaysia has a total of 1.9 million registered migrant workers, constituting approximately 21 per cent of the workforce, making Malaysia the largest importer of labour in Asia.
Despite the large presence of migrant workers in the economy, the policies and laws regulating in-migration are chaotic. Policies built on the concept of a short-term remedy for labour shortage problems have exposed the failure on the part of policymakers to recognise the critical contribution of migrant workers over the longer term. Read more…
Author: Thee Kian Wie, LIPI, Jakarta
The Indonesian economy continued to grow strongly at 5.8 per cent (yoy) during the third quarter of 2010, which was slightly lower than during the second quarter of the year when growth reached 6.2 per cent.
The slightly lower growth during the third quarter of 2010 was due to the unusual weather conditions caused by continuous rains. Read more…
Author: Moon Chung-in, Yonsei University, Seoul
There is flashing red light in Korea’s China diplomacy. Turning a blind eye toward us, China adopted a neutral stance in the Ch’ŏnan incident, and in the case of the Yŏnp’yŏng Island incident, China even gave the impression it was taking North Korea’s side by its use of terms such as ‘cross-fire’ to refer to the shelling.
On North Korea’s uranium enrichment program, China has taken an essentially passive stance by not only stressing the importance of ‘verifying the facts’ in reference to the reported enrichment facility, but also recognizing North Korea’s right to peaceful use of atomic energy. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, ANU
Like China, India emerged largely unscathed from the impact of global financial meltdown to grow at an impressive 6.7 per cent in 2008-09.
This was a performance that ranked second only to China’s: although lower than the 9 per cent growth achieved in the three years immediately before. Read more…
Author: M. Govinda Rao, NIPFP, New Delhi
India’s economic growth accelerated significantly in the latter half of 2010. The growth of real GDP during the final two quarters of 2010 averaged 8.9 per cent as compared to the 7.5 per cent recorded during the corresponding period in 2009.
The acceleration of growth has been broad based and is seen in all the three sectors – agriculture, industry and services. Read more…
Author: Rajiv Kumar, FICCI, New Delhi
Last year has indeed been a rollercoaster year for India. The high point has been India securing a firm place on the high table of global governance.
The process started with the G-20 summit in November 2008 and culminated in the second half of this year that saw the heads of government of all five Security Council members visiting Delhi. Read more…
Author: Chalongphob Sussangkarn, TDRI, Bangkok
The Red Shirts’ protracted occupation of a central Bangkok area and the eventual violent and deadly end in May 2010 reiterated the highly divisive situation in Thai politics.
This protest, like the Yellow Shirts’ closure of the Bangkok airport toward the end of 2008, had the potential to have extended negative impacts on the broader economy, particularly on foreigners’ confidence. Read more…