This pre-feasibility study develops a practical and implementable program to develop the Sarawak (Malaysia)–West Kalimantan (Indonesia) border area (within a broad geographic context), based on specific industry value chains. It identifies concrete and high-impact projects that will advance implementation of an integrated border area development program for West Kalimantan. It maps the optimal configuration of Sarawak–West Kalimantan cross-border trade and investment in goods and services; and, concurrently, provides the design of a border area development plan for the two territories. As a pre-feasibility study, we examine a wide range of industry options and determine which projects are economically viable within the socioeconomic, institutional, and political context of Sarawak and West Kalimantan. We follow the same analytical approach as that for the pilot project study of North Kalimantan and Sabah, which serves as a high-profile demonstration pre-feasibility study for this and other border area development programs.
This study maps the optimal configuration of North Kalimantan–Sabah cross-border trade and investment in goods and services; and, concurrently, it provides a preliminary (pre-feasibility) design of a border area development plan for the two territories. The options for moving project proposals forward are elaborated in sufficient detail and contain the needed concrete measures that will permit the overall collaboration program to move through subsequent stages of development into the final implementation and operational phases.
There are six objectives to the study. The first is to analyze existing trade patterns between Sabah and North Kalimantan and the competitive advantages of the two territories. The second is to propose a border economic area spread over a wide geographic area that covers a network of interrelated activities. The third is to investigate a range of cross-border trade and investment opportunities in specific goods and services that can serve as high-profile, demonstrable projects for the border economic area. The fourth is to determine the preference orderings of project features by key stakeholders such as government and development partners, commercial entities, and the local population. The fifth is to estimate the net monetary returns for the project portfolio, ranks stakeholders’ non-monetary preferences, and incorporate the latter results into the net monetary returns. And the sixth is to provide an overall program appraisal for the set of projects, including an impact analysis of connectivity options.
This study examines potential investment opportunities for cross-border value chains in the economic corridors of the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).
It offers an investment perspective that is grounded on extensive interviews with company representatives and public sector officials. Qualitative and quantitative-based surveys were conducted over a six-week period by the study team that interviewed 70 companies distributed over 20 industry classifications or divisions in six BIMP-EAGA corridor states and provinces. The surveys were carried out through one-on-one interviews with company representatives and the results were used to rate not only investment opportunities in different industries, but also soft and hard infrastructural conditions that affect the investment climate.
This study examines the investment climate impacting on decisions to invest in the economic corridors of the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA). The key factors identified by businesses as impacting on their investment decisions in BIMP-EAGA’s corridors are complementarities in cross-border production activities and services, investment incentives, hard and soft infrastructure, the regulatory environment, governance, and other issues affecting cross-border investments.
This monograph deals with the emergence and characteristics of special border zones in Thailand and how they are able to deal with the range of situations that exist along the country’s borders. It brings together practical tools and experiences surrounding Thailand’s border area development. Its emphasis is on new directions being adopted to drive economic growth and social development in those regions that could otherwise lag behind the rapid growth of agglomerations near major international gateways.
It provides the basic tools and methodologies required to adequately evaluate and plan the location, coverage, incentives and financing for border development areas. In so doing, it emphasizes practical issues needed to implement special border development zones in ways that ensure that the choice of projects, programs and institutions designated for the border areas are based on international best practices.
It covers special border zones at three levels: first, it describes their characteristics in terms of common features and operational components; second, it covers the overall strategic approach to their design and adaption to specific area requirements; and, third, it provides details on practical steps involved in their implementation and operationalization.
The present study explores opportunities and challenges for intra- and inter-regional trade in the Central and South Asia areas by analyzing a wide range of channels impacting trade. Trade enhancing channels are divided into two broad categories. The first set refers to disaggregated or product-level characterizations of trade affecting competitiveness and complementarities between trading partners within and between the regions. The second refers to price, non-price and structural determinants that tend to affect all products traded between countries. The analysis also includes a gravity model to gauge the effect of economic growth, distance and price, non-price and structural determinants of regional trade.
The report provides a review and analysis of the findings from the scoping study on the proposed Malaysian–Thailand Special Border Economic Zone (SBEZ). The coverage of the study is guided by the recommendations of the IMT-GT Special Implementation Task Force on the Establishment of a Special Border Economic Zone (hereafter TF-SBEZ) at its meeting in Penang, Malaysia on 22 November 2013. At that time, the TF-SBEZ determined that that present study should be a stand-alone study, comprehensive in nature and cover in-depth all the SBEZ components for each of the eight border crossing areas in the Thai-Malaysian border, including linkages to Indonesia.
Based on those findings, the TF-SBEZ requested that the present study make recommendations to the Task Force on the possible location(s) of the SBEZ. The study is part of a broader project that intends to support the establishment of an SBEZ that will help to attract investors in productive activities that promote subregional value chains in order to stimulate cross-border trade and investment, serve as a catalyst to commerce along the IMT-GT corridors and help to substantially improve the social and economic welfare of the population along the border provinces.
Laos benefits from the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA). The Agreement has eliminated tariffs on 90% of Australia’s and New Zealand’s imports, with the remaining tariff lines to be removed by 2020. For Laos, it provides for a much longer transition period for eliminating tariffs in recognition of the country’s status as a newer ASEAN member having as least developed country status.
The Agreement also eliminates non-tariff barriers like licensing requirements; offers procedures on standards and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures; facilitates communications and shipping services; and guarantees equal treatment to foreign investments. These preferential arrangements offer Laos significant opportunities for accessing the Australian and New Zealand markets in a wide range of products.
The present evaluation assesses the first phase of the Trade Development Facility (TDF-1) spanning the period between 2008 and March 2013. The evaluation follows a standard framework used by development partners to assess the performance of completed trade-related technical assistance. It uses a set of evaluation criteria to measure project outcomes in terms of (i) relevance, (ii) effectiveness, (iii) efficiency, and (iv) impact as measured in terms of (a) sustainability and (b) cross-cutting gender issues. The evaluation uses the World Bank’s rating scale for its monitoring and evaluation framework plus numerical scoring: (a) highly satisfactory (score = 6); (b) satisfactory (score = 5); moderately satisfactory (score = 4); (c) moderately unsatisfactory (score = 3); (d) unsatisfactory (score = 2); and (e) highly unsatisfactory (score = 1). The assessment is based on performance indicators, stakeholder questionnaires, program documents, interim reviews by TDF development partners, structured interviews and comments received from stakeholders at the meeting of the Program Executive Committee (PEC) on 3 April 2013.
Laos benefits from the comprehensive ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Agreement (AKFTA), which in large part has supported the fast growing exports of Laos to Korea. Since Laos became a member of ASEAN in 1997, its exports destined for Korea have increased 10-fold. That expansion is nearly twice as large as Lao exports to all destination and has contributed to Korea being one of its top 10 export destinations.
The AKFTA has separate lists for products on the normal and sensitive tracks. The Most Favored Nation (MFN) tariffs for products on the normal track covering 90% of all tariff lines were eliminated by Korea in 2010. For the remaining 10% of tariff lines, which cover sensitive products, Korea’s customs duties on imports were reduced to 20% in 2010 and are now in the process of being reduced to between 0% and 5% by 2016. In the case of Laos, customs duties on the 90% of tariff lines listed in the normal track are gradually being eliminated by 2018. Customs duties on the remaining 10% of tariff lines are being lowered to 0%-5% by 2024.
This guide shows how to determine (a) whether there are benefits to using the AKFTA, and (b) whether a particular product being exported from Laos is eligible for a preferential rate. It is important to check these two conditions in order to avoid spending time and money in applying for the preferential rate if a product is already subject to a low customs duty outside AKFTA.