Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the PacificAuthor: Frank Jotzo, ANU
What happens in China is central to the global effort to limit the extent of future climate change. China is already the largest emitter of greenhouse gases by far, even as it continues its process of urbanisation and economic modernisation. Under a traditional model of energy-intensive economic growth fed by fossil fuels, this would thwart the world’s chances of keeping climate change at levels considered relatively safe. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, East Asia Forum
It wasn’t long ago that US governments and corporations had Japan in the dock for competing via ‘unfair business practices’ to take over world markets. Japanese corporate conglomerates (the keiretsu financial groups) were responsible, so the accusation ran, for a whole range of problems in the United States–Japan relationship: from ‘closed’ Japanese markets for manufactured goods that artificially held imports of manufactured goods down to the bilateral trade deficit between the two countries. Read more…
Author: Bruce Greenwald, Columbia University
As part of Abenomics’ third arrow of structural reform, Japan recently adopted a new corporate governance code. The new code focuses on making Japanese corporations more transparent, more responsive to shareholders — including minority shareholders — and subject to more effective oversight by boards of directors, especially outside directors. Read more…
Author: Raman Letchumanan, RSIS
The smoke haze crisis that battered a major part of the southern ASEAN region in mid-2015 is showing signs of abating. Along with the disappearing haze, it is crucial that the resolve demonstrated by all parties — especially governments — to solve the issue doesn’t vanish as well. Read more…
Author: Yoji Koda, National Security Secretariat, Japan
On 27 April 2015 the Japanese and US governments approved the revised Guidelines for Japan–US Defense Cooperation. Subsequently, on 19 September 2015, the Japanese Diet passed a package of security legislation aimed at enhancing Japan’s role in maintaining international security. Read more…
Author: Bharat Dahiya, Chulalongkorn University
As the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) takes steps toward implementing the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the end of 2015, they should be cognisant that the paths towards economic integration and sustainable urbanisation are closely intertwined. Southeast Asian cities will play a critical role in the unfolding of the AEC. Read more…
Author: Sarah Teo, RSIS
On 1 November 2015, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye convened in Seoul, South Korea for the Sixth Trilateral Summit. The meeting was the first after political and historical disputes led to a three-year hiatus, of what was supposed to be an annual summit. Read more…
Author: Juan J. Palacios, University of Guadalajara
On 29 September, President Enrique Peña Nieto formally launched an initiative he had first announced in November 2014 to create, for the first time in Mexico, three special economic zones (SEZs) in the country’s poorest states. The next day, Peña Nieto submitted to Congress the draft of the law that will set the rules and conditions for the creation and operation of these zones.
Author: Arnold Puyok, UNIMAS
These are tiring times for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. Najib has so far managed to stay in power despite the flurry of attacks on his leadership. Political debacles have almost cost Najib his prime ministership and the popularity of the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN). Read more…
Author: Myint Zan, Multimedia University
In a press conference on 5 November 2015, Myanmar’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi candidly stated that if her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won the election on 8 November and was able to form the next government, she would be ‘above the president’. And the NLD has won the election. Read more…
Author: Sana Hashmi, Centre for Air Power Studies
Chinese Vice-President Li Yuanchao paid a high-profile visit to India from 3–7 November 2015. This was the first time that a Chinese Vice President had paid a state visit to India. The visit followed two other high profile events: Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India in September 2014 and Read more…
Author: Masahiko Takeda, Hitotsubashi University
On 13 November 2015, the IMF’s Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, released a statement that an IMF Executive Board meeting will be held on 30 November to decide whether to include the Chinese reminbi (RMB) in the Special Drawing Rights’ (SDR) valuation formula. Read more…
Authors: Lawrence J. Lau, CUHK and Jungsoo Park, Sogang University
The high and persistent growth of the four Newly Industrialised Economies — also known as the East Asian Tigers: Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan — from 1970 to 1990 prompted much debate about the drivers of growth in these economies. There have been numerous studies looking into this issue, but they have not yet been able to reach a common conclusion. Read more…
Author: Hugh Patrick, Columbia Business School
Energy is probably Japan’s greatest vulnerability, both in environmental terms and in assured sources of supply. Japan’s long-run energy policy is simple — obtain stable supplies at low cost — but implementation is complex in what is a global, dynamic, rapidly changing set of related industries. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, East Asia Forum
The issue of the sustainability of economic growth is a hot issue in the debate about economic policy. Growth, as measured through change in GDP, means that people are better off, but it does not mean that people will continue to enjoy a higher standard of living in the future. Sustainability means that social consumption can be at least as high in the future as it is now. Read more…