Development in the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle

In this article, we explore whether regional economic cooperation in the form of growth triangle, made popular during the late 1980s, can continue to be relevant in the face of more formal arrangements as in free trade agreements (FTAs) and other bilateral ‘closer economic partnerships’ (CEPs) initiatives in the recent years. In particular, the discussion is focussed on the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore growth triangle (IMS-GT) which is the pioneering arrangement in Southeast Asia. IMS-GT continues to be a successful mode of cooperation among the three countries and will remain a key and subtle framework for regional economic collaboration amidst the plethora of initiatives relating to FTAs and CEPs. This paper put forth a thesis that GT is part of a spectrum of regional cooperation efforts with convergence interest to be in synchrony with the global value chain. As long as the formation and implementation of GT contribute to the creation of value, it can co-exist with more formal arrangements like the FTAs and CEPs.

Bilateral “WTO-Plus” Free Trade Agreements: The WTO Trade Policy Review of Singapore 2004

The World Trade Organisation’s 2004 Trade Policy Review of Singapore (WTO-TPR Singapore 2004) depicts the small and outward-oriented economy as one of the most open country to international trade and investment. The review highlights the benefits of the outward-oriented strategy that has enabled the Singapore economy to weather recent external shocks such as the Asian financial crisis to the SARS and to the recent unfavourable conditions in the Middle East. In particular, the report commended Singapore’s efforts on its liberalization of the services sector and its economic benefits to consumers and global trade. However, the WTO-TPR Singapore 2004 highlights several key areas of concerns: (a) the commitment to multilateral agreements with the rising number of bilateral free trade agreements signed by Singapore and (b) the lack of growth of total factor productivity, a key indicator for long-run efficiency of the economy. The paper addresses the above key concerns raised in the WTO’s TPR of Singapore in terms of its commitment to global trade in terms of WTO-plus bilateral FTAs, which intends to support multilateral trading system, and its overall industrial strategies to raise its competitiveness.

Singapore Information Sector: A Study Using Input-Output Table

The paper measures the impact of information technology on the output growth of Singapore economy. A vibrant information sector will play an important catalytic role in developing Singapore into a knowledge-based economy. The analysis provided in the paper support the assertion that information economy will be a precursor to a knowledge-based economy. The information sector grew in tandem with the expansion of export in the first half of the 1990s. By the second half of the 1990s, it developed sufficient momentum and capability to expand domestically as a cluster. The use of ICT as intermediate input is found to be generally pervasive in the economy. The paper also investigated the impact of falling prices of information input on sectoral GDP. It is found that for a 10% decrease in information input prices, the sector GDPs had to increase by 0.05% to 2.2%. The overall impact for the economy is a positive 0.84% increase in national income (GDP) for a 10% decline in information input prices.

The Impact of R&D on the Singapore Economy:An Empirical Evaluation

Much of the literature on the impact of R&D on economic performance is founded on the advanced countries, where the intensity of R&D expenditure has been relatively high and stable for many years. In this paper, we provide empirical estimates of the impact of R&D on the economic growth of a Newly Industrialised Economy, Singapore, where R&D expenditure intensity has been low initially, bur rising rapidly in recent years. The Cobb-Douglas based analysis provided empirical evidence that R&D investment in Singapore had a significant impact on its total factor productivity performance in the last 20 years and established a long-term equilibrium relationship between R&D investments and TFP. However, compared to the OECD nations, the impact of R&D investment on economic growth in Singapore is not as strong, as evidenced by lower estimated elasticity values. The long run elasticity of output with respect to R&D was computed to be 8.1% for Singapore compared to long run elasticities of over 10% estimated by other researchers for OECD countries. This suggests that Singapore still has some way to go in catching up with the advanced nations in terms of R&D productivity. This not only means increasing the level of R&D intensity in Singapore but also more efficient exploitation of domestic R&D activity.Economic Growth, R&D Expenditure, Total Factor Productivity

Il sud-est asiatico nell'anno del serpente. Rapporto 1989 sulla situazione sociale, politica ed economica dell'area

Approfondito rapporto sulla situazione politica ed economica del sud-est asiatico e dei paesi componenti alle soglie degli anni Novanta.- Indice #7- Presentazione #11- Introduzione, Ng Chee Yuen #13- La regione #17- Il Sud-est asiatico nel 1988: presagi del futuro, Stephen Chee #19- Le economie di mercato del Sud-est asiatico, Norbert Wagner #69- Il ruolo del Giappone in un universo emergente: i paesi asiatici del Pacifico, Sueo Sudo #89- Tendenze dell'attività bancaria e finanziaria nei paesi dell'ASEAN, U Tun Wai #111- Birmania #141- La Birmania nel 1988: la «perestroika» dal volto militare, James F. Guyot #143- Brunei #181- Il Brunei Darussalam nel 1988: continuità e tradizione, Abu Bakar Hamzah #183- Cambogia #203- Cambogia: alla ricerca di una soluzione politica, Friedemann Bartu #205- Filippine #223- Le Lilippine nel 1988: il difficile cammino verso la ripresa, Alberto llano #225- Le Lilippine: gestire la riforma in una nuova democrazia, Mario Antonio Lopez #247- Indonesia #267- Una presenza più attiva per l'Indonesia, Jon Halldorsson #269- Indonesia 1988: l'esperimento democratico fa progressi?, J. Soedjati Djiwandono #295- Laos #313- Riforma economica e trasformazione strutturale nel Laos, William Worner #315- Malaysia #345- La Malaysia nel 1988: un sistema politico in frantumi, Stephen Chee #347- La svolta economica in Malaysia, Mohd. Ismail Ahmad #387- Singapore #403- Singapore nel 1988: il sistema politico matura in un clima incerto, Lew Eng Fee #405- L'economia post-recessiva di Singapore nel 1988: andamento e prospettive, Toh Mun Heng #435- Tailandia #459- Fine della «premocracy» in Tailandia, Yos Santasombat #461- Tailandia: Miss Universo 1988, Pasuk Phongpachit #487- Vietnam #505- Il Vietnam nel 1988: una rivoluzione in transizione, William Duiker #50

The development of Singapore as a knowledge based economy : size to KBE and its economic impact

Research Paper Series (National University of Singapore. Faculty of Business Administration); 2000-0031-2

The RAS Approach in Updating Input-Output Matrices: An Instrumental Variable Interpretation and Analysis of Structural Change

The main purposes of the paper are to reconsider the rationale of the RAS method, and to attempt to improve on its interpretation and usefulness. The substitution and fabrication factors in the RAS method are interpreted as statistical estimates obtained by the method of instrumental variables. This enables the computation of asymptotic standard errors for the factors and the relative precision of the predicted technical coefficients. Furthermore, an adjustment cost minimization model to describe how a sector determines its substitution and fabrication factors is presented. The solutions of the model provide another rationale for the RAS method, and the associated Lagrangian multipliers can be useful for assessing structural constraints and structural change.RAS method, instrumental variables, sectoral optimization model, Lagrange multipliers, relative precision of coefficients,

Bilateral “WTO-Plus” Free Trade Agreements: The WTO Trade Policy Review of Singapore 2004

The World Trade Organisation’s 2004 Trade Policy Review of Singapore (WTO-TPR Singapore 2004) depicts the small and outward-oriented economy as one of the most open country to international trade and investment. The review highlights the benefits of the outward-oriented strategy that has enabled the Singapore economy to weather recent external shocks such as the Asian financial crisis to the SARS and to the recent unfavourable conditions in the Middle East. In particular, the report commended Singapore’s efforts on its liberalization of the services sector and its economic benefits to consumers and global trade. However, the WTO-TPR Singapore 2004 highlights several key areas of concerns: (a) the commitment to multilateral agreements with the rising number of bilateral free trade agreements signed by Singapore and (b) the lack of growth of total factor productivity, a key indicator for long-run efficiency of the economy. The paper addresses the above key concerns raised in the WTO’s TPR of Singapore in terms of its commitment to global trade in terms of WTO-plus bilateral FTAs, which intends to support multilateral trading system, and its overall industrial strategies to raise its competitiveness.WTO-TPR Singapore 2004, WTO, Asian financial crisis, liberalization, bilateral free trade agreement, efficiency of the economy,