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 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 World Trade Organization’s new Agreement on Trade Facilitation has the potential to significantly reduce East Asia’s trade costs along the entire supply chain, increasing regional gross domestic product (GDP) by 2.7 percent and employment by 1.2 percent. At present, the region’s developing economies suffer from trade costs well above those of the newly industrialized countries and of developed economies, owing to the large number of inefficient border and behind-the-border procedures. Countries have been adding to their stock of nontariff measures, which now account for as much as 90 percent of (non-transportation) trade costs. The ATF defines a new reform agenda for East Asia with potentially far-reaching effects on private sector development, especially for small businesses that need greater transparency and simplification of procedures to enable them to readily access regional and global value chains.

Proponents of the decoupling view argue that Asian economies now have more diversified export markets, and they also point to more robust domestic and intra-regional growth drivers that are independent of the US and other developed economies. China in particular has the potential to drive that intra-regional growth, a phenomenon that has already by exemplified by the emergence of its large trade and investments with East and Southeast Asia. There are, nonetheless, a large number of opponents to this view. Those who argue that decoupling is unlikely to occur point to the fact that intra-regional and extra-regional trade flows in Asia are largely made up of parts and components that eventually supply the United States and other developed economies. Reversing that pattern in Asia, they argue, would be neither feasible nor desirable.

The present study examines the empirical evidence underlying these arguments as a means of establishing some forwarding looking views about what options are available to the Asian economies. First, it demonstrates that the strong linkages both within Asia and between Asia and the United States and Europe have not waned in the last 25 years. Second, the study finds that there are significant downside risks for the recovery of growth in the United States and Europe. Thirdly, the types of goods produced in Asia as outsourcing for large enterprises is likely to incorporate more second-generation technology that could increasingly promote intra-regional production networks. Another finding of the study is that stock market indicators in Asia are highly correlated with the major financial centers in the United States and Europe. Finally, pegged and managed exchange rates will likely continue to form part of the policy tools used in most Asian economies, notwithstanding the lessons from the Asian financial crisis.

Indonesia could reverse its declining shares of EU trade by focusing its production activities on processing activities and other activities that add value to products. It has a relatively high degree of trade compatibility with EU imports. There are also many products in which Indonesia has already succeeded in increasing its market shares in rapidly expanding markets in the European Union. Examples include electronic components, processed and prepared foods, and chemicals. In other products, however, Indonesia has not yet taken advantage of the fast-growing EU markets for products like soaps and cosmetics, television parts, furniture, crustaceans, footwear and jewelry. Recognizing these opportunities could stimulate the Indonesian private sector, with Government support, to find ways to overcome existing obstacles and develop products with export potential to fast-growing EU markets.

In order to provide lessons and guidelines for developing high value added exports with dynamic growth markets in the European Union, the present study focuses on five industries or sub-sectors of importance to Indonesia. The selection process has invoked several criteria that can be grouped into three categories: (i) factors related to national development objective; (ii) factors related to foreign market determinants; and (iii) factors related to international competitiveness and internal factors. The results of this procedure have led to the selection of the following focal industries fisheries and agri-foods; consumer electronics; furniture’ and natural cosmetics.

Sustainability of the Asian growth model, delinking possibilities, and policy prescriptions.

The objective of this study is to provide a preliminary analysis on a range of CET options that could be adopted by ASEAN and to quantitatively assess their implications for each ASEAN member state and the region as a whole. The results of the study are intended to assist the ASEAN Secretariat and the ASEAN member states in considering options under deliberations by the CCCA, which will eventually be presented to the Senior Economic Officials Meeting (SEOM) for its deliberation on the application of a CET as a long term objective of economic integration in ASEAN.

We compare the welfare effects of ASEAN FTAs relative to pre-CET and post-CET rates. While the static effects are unlikely to be large since, in the end, the final trade-weighted average tariff is the same, the dynamic effects could be significant and give rise to questions about revenue compensations prior to joining new FTAs. The welfare effects of the two sequencing paths can vary considerably. Implementation of a customs union and an FTA can also move forward simultaneously since the implementation of a customs union may be phased and FTA negotiations initiated during that time. In those cases, the existence of customs union commitments by the ASEAN member states can be considered as preceding the FTA, even though the customs union commitments are not fully implemented.

Regional integration analysis to promote trade among the Member States of the Bay of Bengal Initiatives for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

Comprehensive quantitative analysis of Belize-Guatemala bilateral trade agreement, based on econometric modeling of bilateral trade flows.