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 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.
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.
Strategy and Action Plan for Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program (CAREC) and results-oriented framework for poverty reduction and growth.
The report offers a comprehensive analysis and recommendations for the formulation of a new trade support initiative, as a continuation phase of the current Trade Development Facility (TDF). It is based on the TDF lessons learned to date, the actionable recommendations of the DTIS Update for the 7th NSEDP and the National Export Strategy (NES), and meetings conducted under the Joint TDF/EIF Implementation Support Mission on November 8-18, 2011. The new project will support implementation of the DTIS Update and its Action Matrix, which will in turn contribute to the implementation of the Government’s trade strategy linked to the 7th National Social and Economic Development Plan (NSEDP) covering 2011‐2015. It will also provide trade-related assistance for capacity building and technical assistance for trade-related policy reforms linked to the Poverty Reduction Support Operation (PRSO), and it will help the Trade and Private Sector Working Group of the Round Table Process for aid effectiveness to build consensus about development priorities and improve aid coordination as set out in the Vientiane Declaration Country Action Plan.
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.
PRSO actions have supported trade and PSD reforms through: (i) close working relations between donors and line ministries, which have helped foster government ownership; (ii) good collaboration between donors financing PRSO; (iii) disseminating information about program activities to donors not financing the PRSO; (iv) adapting policy actions to changing circumstances for Government and the economy at large during the programmatic series; and (v) availability of TA resources through the TDF and SME Promotion and Development Office (SMEPDO) where needed. The program’s effectiveness has proven especially helpful in promoting inter-ministerial cooperation, and providing TA support for PRSO actions that have concurrently built staff capabilities in line ministries.
This study is intended to support the Government’s efforts to introduce reforms to the insurance industry and its negotiations for accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). To that end, it provides a consolidated perspective about insurance services in Laos, with particular reference to the impact of possible Government commitments to liberalizing the insurance industry as part of its WTO accession process. The study builds on a survey of the industry and its regulatory environment to determine the areas that could benefit from liberalization and restructuring. It uses these findings along with the experiences of other Asian countries and best practice recommendations to suggest possible reforms and commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the WTO. The implications of liberalization for the insurance industry are then considered and reforms supporting the Government’s overall economic plan are proposed.
Aid for Trade (AfT) design of project proposals in context of Pacific island countries’ trade strategies for Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federal State of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, PNG, Samoa, Solomon, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, to mobilize AfT resources