Assessing regional integration: The progress of ASEAN regional grouping

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is now entering a new phase in its integration process. Beyond AFTA, it is now preparing a roadmap towards deeper economic integration, namely the creation of an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. Economic integration is to be encouraged if it can contribute positively towards the achievement of this goal and the overall developmental goals of the ASEAN countries. In view of the importance of enhancing economic integration in the era of globalisation, this paper evaluates the progress of ASEAN regional integration for the past decade to see to what extent ASEAN economic integration efforts have been successful. In this paper, the progress and developments of ASEAN countries are evaluated using performance indicators of regional integration based on ASEAN economic integration index. The scope of analysis of economic integration focuses on the three most important sectors of the thrusts of ASEAN economic cooperation, that is, trade; Investment; and human resources and labour mobility

Connecting South East Asia: a Blueprint for ASEAN Connectivity

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established on August 8, 1967, when foreign ministers of five countries, consisting of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, met in Bangkok and signed the ASEAN Declaration. The regional grouping has made the most progress in economic integration, aiming to create an ASEAN Community by 2015. Recently, the Member Countries of the ASEAN have accepted the concept of ASEAN Connectivity, which emphasized on the three pillars regional cooperation of security, socio-cultural, and economic integration. In particular, ASEAN Connectivity is expected: (1) to enhance trade, investment, tourism, and development, (2) to narrow development gaps, and (3) to facilitate people-to-people contacts. As a preparation to adapt with a new system, Indonesia is geared to improve its domestic connectivity as a prerequisite of regional connectivity. In Indonesia's view, regional connectivity should help empower and develop the local economies, as an effort to narrow the development gaps within ASEAN. To fulfill these goals, Indonesia needs to strengthen its physical connectivity through better transportation infrastructure. However, to support trade facilitation, good transportation infrastructure alone is not sufficient. It needs to be enhanced with ICT infrastructure, which is crucial in supporting trade facilitation through its ability to facilitate information exchange and to reduce the cost of doing business. This paper aims to explore how Indonesia's domestic connectivity coops with the concept of ASEAN connectivity. Some data and various existing policies in their effort to accomplish ASEAN connectivity will be explored. With the new legal framework in ICT and transportation, the performance of the ICT and transportation system in Indonesia is expected to ameliorate, hence supporting the development of other sectors, and this will ultimately lead to the realization of ASEAN Connectivity

China and ASEAN have forged solid ties since they established a dialogue 15 years ago, and their strategic partnership seems likely to expand in the future

This year marks the 15thanniversary of the dialogue relationship between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and is also the Year of China-ASEAN Friendly Cooperation. Under an agreement reached at the Ninth China-ASEAN Summit held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2005, the two sides endorsed a list of commemorative activities to celebrate the anniversary, one of which is a summit in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on October 30, which will be attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and leaders of ASEAN member states. At that time, the Third China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit will also be held in the city.China, ASEAN, strategic partnership

Economic Integration between ASEAN+5 Countries: Comparison of GDP

This study aims to investigate the causality direction of economic integration among ASEAN countries together with five other neighboring countries, namely Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. The analysis is based on the economic integration of GDP covering the sample period from 1967 to 2007. Empirical results from the Toda and Yamomoto (1995) Granger non-causality tests depicted the existence of bi-directional causality relationships between the GDP of ASEAN and China; GDP of ASEAN and Japan; GDP ASEAN and South Korea, and also GDP of ASEAN and New Zealand. This indicates that there is a great potential for ASEAN countries moving towards higher degree of economic integration via strengthening the relationship with those countries within the region.Toda and Yamomoto; Economic Integration; ASEAN+5

ASEAN’s Free Trade Agreements with the People’s Republic of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis

Expanding trade with East Asia’s “Big Three” economic giants—the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Japan, and the Republic of Korea—offers a new potential source of growth for ASEAN in the post-global-crisis period. In fact, ASEAN has been actively pursuing trade liberalization with the Big Three. The central objective of this paper is to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the different permutations of ASEAN’s free trade agreements (FTAs) with the Big Three (e.g., ASEAN–PRC, ASEAN–Japan, ASEAN–Republic of Korea, and ASEAN+3). Our qualitative analysis is based on the theory of economic integration, and our quantitative analysis is based on a CGE model. The two types of analyses both suggest that an ASEAN+3 FTA would deliver the largest benefits for the region.ASEAN; People’s Republic of China (PRC); Japan; Republic of Korea; trade; free trade agreement; free trade area; CGE model