The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) involves twelve Pacific Rim economies of varying sizes and structures. Although often portrayed as a free trade agreement, the TPPA can, at best, be expected to deliver paltry overall growth gains from trade liberalization. The much higher figures touted by TPPA advocates are largely due to dubious ‘non-trade measures’, most of which have been reje...

The target for member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to implement the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 has raised concerns on how the free movements of health professionals would come into practice. After the Declaration on the AEC Blueprint was signed by heads of the member states in 2008, the ministries of commerce met in Cha-am, Petchaburi, Thailand, in 2009, to proc...

Since the late nineties, both theoretical and empirical analysis devoted to the real exchange rate suggest that their dynamics might be well approximated by nonlinear models. This paper examines this possibility for post-1970 monthly ASEAN-5 data, extending the existing research in two directions. First, we use recently developed unit root tests which allow for more flexible nonlinear stationar...

According to Article 1 of the ASEAN Charter, one of the purposes of ASEAN is “to promote an ASEAN identity through the fostering of greater awareness of the diverse cultures and heritage of the region” (ASEAN Secretariat 2011, 5). In the ASEAN Vision 2020 issued in December 1997 during the group’s annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, one of the directives was defined thus: “We envision the...

This paper presents the background for the investigation of TNCs activities in Vietnam, and the role of Vietnamese affiliates in the firms’ global and regional value chain. The methodology to be adopted to gather data in Vietnam is presented, together with a framework of analysis. The internationalisation of the Vietnamese economy, thanks to its liberalisation programme, is analysed with emphas...

Economic and trade cooperation between China ASEAN countries has made new progress with the introduction of concept Belt Road. In 2015, formally signed outcome document negotiations on an upgraded free area, which shows that China-asean relations have became better. Enhancing facilitation level Free Trade Area can improve economic exchanges ASEAN. The premise studying how to is measure area. th...

Financial Development (FD) is part of a private sector development strategy to stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty, as well address the "costs" incurred in financial system. As one indicator, domestic credit refers resources provided by companies, such through loans, purchases nonquity securities, other trade receivables which establish claims for repayment. Innovation, internet use ar...

Searching for sustainable regional trade agreements (RTAs) for East Asia, we quantitatively evaluated the likely impact of proposed East Asian RTA strategies─(i) the AFTA (a being-leftalone strategy), (ii) an ASEAN Hub RTA (a hub-and-spoke type of overlapping RTA strategy), (iii) the AFTA vs a China-Japan-Korea RTA (a duplicating or competing RTA strategy), (iv) an ASEAN+3 RTA (an expansionary ...