REVEALED COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE OF WATERMELON TRADE IN ASEAN 5 COUNTRIES

Watermelon Citrullus Lanatus (Thunb) is an important commercial fruit crop in ASEAN. One way to improve economic growth is through trade and comparative advantage. There are very some researches regarding with comparative advantage of watermelon trade in ASEAN. The purpose of this article is to determine the comparative advantage of watermelon trade in five ASEAN member countries. This article uses secondary data only. Watermelon trade data covering the six years period 2014-2019 were obtained from the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database. This article applies the original index of the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) to find out the level of comparative advantage of watermelon commodity. Results show that Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Viet Nam have a comparative advantage of watermelon trade in the global market. This study suggests that ASEAN 5 member nations should try to maintain its comparative advantage of watermelon exports in the international market.

Coup de Grace: How the Quad is Hastening the Destruction of ASEAN

The rise of the US-led Quad alliance in 2017 will be a test for ASEAN. Southeast Asia is at the center of a simmering strategic rivalry between the two world superpowers, the US and China. China's meteoric economic ascendence on the global stage has shifted the balance of global power in today's geopolitics. This article seeks to examine the potential of how the Quad may shake the ASEAN's unity and centrality as a result of China's rise. Beijing has expanded its influence throughout Southeast Asia and is by now easily ASEAN's largest trading partner, while at the same time it has aggressively asserted its pseudohistorical irredentist claims in the South China Sea, a vital route for regional trade, creating territorial disputes with some ASEAN member countries. This article found that the geopolitical situation in Southeast Asia is likely to grow more difficult, perhaps affecting Southeast Asia's policy of non-alignment. Some argue that the Quad will bring balance in the Asia Pacific; however, this view will inevitably change if some ASEAN countries in favor of FOIP decide to join the Quad, either formally or informally, and work together to attempt to counterbalance China, which would leave ASEAN itself torn apart.

THE MAIN TRENDS OF VIETNAM - JAPAN COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF BILATERAL STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

The article examines the process of formation and development of the comprehensive political and trade and economic cooperation between Japan and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam since 1973, when diplomatic relations were established between the two countries, and then received a new impetus after Vietnam started the market reforms in 1986 and commenced the renewal policy (in Vietnamese – “Đổi Mới”). In 2009, Japan and Vietnam decided to raise the bilateral relations to the level of strategic partnership for the common interests of both countries. In 2010, as part of the official visit of the Prime Minister of Japan to Vietnam, a Joint Declaration on strategic cooperation for peace and prosperity in Asia was adopted.The article focuses on cooperation between the two countries in the framework of international and regional organizations, in particular in the framework of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, as well as in the framework of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, in which Japan and ASEAN member states participate. In recent decades Japan has been one of Vietnam’s main foreign economic partners and the second largest investor into Vietnamese economy. At the same time, Japan is the largest sponsor of Vietnam through the Official development assistance program (ODA), actively assisting Vietnam in implementing its national strategy of industrialization and modernization under the framework agreement on cooperation between Vietnam and Japan until 2020 with the prospect of 2030. Besides, the article discusses and analyzes the largest joint projects implemented in Vietnam with the technical and financial assistance from Japan.

ASSESSMENT OF THE LEVEL OF INTEGRATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND DISASTER RISK REDUCTION POLICIES IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANS IN CAMBODIA, INDONESIA, AND MALAYSIA

More than 50 per cent of global disaster mortality occurred in Southeast Asia between 2004 and 2014, and four of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states are ranked in the top 10 countries most affected by climate risk between 1996 and 2015. As climate concerns and their attendant disaster risks are influenced by, and will affect, human activities across broad sectors, a holistic approach to addressing the issues is needed. In this regard, integrating climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction frameworks within the context of national development becomes critical. By ensuring an integrated approach in development plans, sufficient resource allocations can be better ensured and climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction efforts can be implemented more effectively. To enable further estimate of ASEAN’s readiness to face the effects of climate change, this study examines the level of integration of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in national development plans of select ASEAN member states. It specifically looks at the structure and design of climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction agenda within the development plans in Cambodia, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The assessment discovers that there is a varying degree of climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and development convergence in the countries under study, and concludes that Cambodia has them fully integrated while Indonesia and Malaysia have integrated them partially.

Riau Government’s Policies to Realize the AATHP’s Goals (2015-2016)

The ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) is a collective effort agreed by all of the ASEAN member countries to purposely tackle haze pollution and Indonesia finally ratified it in late 2014. Indonesian government has had responsibilities to carry out its part to tackle forest and land fires resulting in transboundary haze within its territory since then, coordinating and cooperating with all of its lower-level administrations. However, there has been little attention to the study emphasizing any local government’s roles to support the regime’s goals. This research paper aims to describe Riau government’s policies to realize the goals of the AATHP from 2015 to 2016. This paper applies behavioralist approach, which is effective to analyze the actor’s policies or decisions inasmuch as it allows the analysis on an individual or group that represents a state or governance. This paper applies David Easton’s system theory of decision making which belongs to the approach. The finding of the research is that Riau government took the policies of creating the plan of action on forest and land fires prevention and raising the local emergency statuses to contribute to the goals realization. It means that the local government was, too, an important actor to determine the success or failure of the regime during the years.

LMDI Decomposition Analysis of E-Waste Generation in the ASEAN

The economies of ASEAN member states are growing rapidly, and electrical and electronic waste (E-waste) generated from them are also showing a rapid increase. In this context, this study conducted an LMDI decomposition analysis on the amount of E-waste generated in ASEAN member countries from 2015 to 2019 and decomposed it into E-waste intensity, economic growth, and population effects. Then, based on analysis results, policy implications are suggested to improve their E-waste management. According to the analysis results, ASEAN countries can be classified into three groups. The first group includes Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand; economic growth was the main driving factor of E-waste increase in these countries. However, E-waste had also decreased due to the effect of E-waste intensity. The second group includes countries where economic growth was not the only driving factor for E-waste increase, but also where E-waste had increased due to the effect of E-waste intensity. These countries include Cambodia, Malaysia, and Viet Nam. Finally, the third group consists of countries where the effect of E-waste intensity is the main driving factor, including Brunei Darussalam, Lao PDR, and Myanmar. This research shows that ASEAN countries need policies that can effectively deal with the threat of E-waste as a result of high economic growth and policies that can improve intensity by reducing the generation of E-waste.

Regulatory regionalism and the limits of ASEAN banking integration: The case of Indonesia

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) aims to integrate the banking industry in the region. To achieve this, ASEAN members have agreed to create the ASEAN Banking Integration Framework (ABIF) to support such integration. Despite being endorsed in 2014, the framework remains vague and lacks clear policy coordination arrangements as well as standardisation instruments that enable ASEAN member states to integrate their banking sectors. This article examines why the member states agreed to such regulatory arrangements. Building upon the regulatory regionalism approach, we argue that the regulatory arrangement is underpinned by a socio-political struggle among dominant social forces in ASEAN. The article further argues that the political endeavour to internationalise domestic capital through the banking integration project remains problematic, given that local banking players seem to largely focus on protecting and penetrating domestic markets rather than regional expansion. This has hindered the progress of regional banking integration in ASEAN. To substantiate this argument, we use Indonesia’s engagement in the process as a case study. This article contributes to the study of political economies of banking integration outside of the European experiment by emphasising the importance of state–society relations in shaping the outcome of regional integration.

ASEAN as an Optimal/Nonoptimal Currency Area

Economists have been arguing to this day about the benefits and risks of introducing a community currency. It is very difficult to clearly determine which side is right. Most often, scientists refer to the example of the so-called Eurozone, but it is still far from reaching an agreement between supporters and opponents of such a solution. This paper presents the issues of monetary integration in ASEAN+3 (i.e. ASEAN member countries, China, South Korea, and Japan) in terms of the optimal currency area and other necessary conditions for the creation of a sustainable development region. The researchers argue about whether ASEAN+3 should introduce a single currency. Some suggest that the group meets several OCA theory criteria, i.e. labour mobility and economic openness. According to the results of the study, ASEAN+3 is an economically diverse area and there is a lack of institutions enabling effective monetary integration in the short term. Optimization assumptions included in the analysis determine the real chances of development and survival within the currency area. The author's analysis has indicated that ASEAN+3 should not introduce a single currency for three reasons: failure to meet the optimization criteria, diversification of socio-economic development, lack of an institutional framework and inconsistency in the perception of monetary integration. On the other hand, it should be noted that a single currency could contribute to increasing the monetary security of the entire South-East Asian region, which means that the ​​monetary integration may be a long-term idea.

Volatility Exchange Rate and Economic Growth: Insight from ASEAN Member Countries

This study aims to determine the effect of exchange rate volatility on economic growth in the ASEAN member countries (Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia) through investment. Based on the previous studies, the researcher focuses on developing the initial research analysis because it can control different company levels' characteristics and then determine the impact of exchange rate changes on economic growth mediated by investment. There is a limited analysis of whether exchange rate movements encourage overall investment in this study's particular direction. The author's primary focus is whether the export or import channels or both play an essential role in determining a company's investment. This study's population is in ASEAN member countries that have been published by the World Bank (https://www.worldbank.org/) and continue to exist during the period 1998-2019. The sample selection in this study used a purposive sampling method. Some of the ratio data were available in the financial report summary. The analysis method used in the study is the path analysis.