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.
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.
The present study bring together in a systematic manner the available information from recent expenditure and consumption surveys for Laos as they relate to the impact of the EWEC on different social and economic aspects of households in the Lao PDR province of Savannakhet. The intent is to provide a means of identifying the progress being made in the ADB’s GMS corridor initiatives and to identify areas for further interventions. The study is part of the ADB’s continuing work on the social and general welfare impact of the GMS corridors. That work includes efforts to formulate recommendations and action plans for mitigating possible negative effects from the associated economic transformation of the areas surrounding the corridors. The study also supports the ADB’s other work on the impact of cross-border trade and investment on poverty alleviation. Finally, it complements new work being carried out on corridor towns, particularly those related to border town development.
Demonstrated inverse relationship between share of SMEs in economy and level of development.
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.