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This chapter analyses the how, who, where and why of rapid rise in intra-regional investment by companies from ASEAN since 2009.

The chapter analyses the push and pull factors of intra-regional investment in ASEAN, the resulting patterns of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the accompanying rise of strong regional players.

The region’s FDI landscape is changing in terms of investment sources, players, FDI trends and dynamics of the region. This trend is strongly affected by stepped up efforts by ASEAN governments to encourage their national companies to invest in the region and the influence of the ASEAN Economic Community.

Regional integration and emerging business opportunities are providing an impetus not seen before in driving intra-regional investment. As more ASEAN companies position and prepare for AEC 2015, this intra-regional investment wave is likely to gather force.

The chapter lists the regional and global ‘footprint’ of the top 50 largest ASEAN companies by revenues. The thus identified companies include companies operating in oil and gas, mining, agri-business, telecommunications, food and beverages, manufacturing, banking, power generation, infrastructure, real estate and healthcare services

The European Union's Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) has existed for over 40 years and it aimed to promote the export growth in the developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the evolution and characteristics of the EU's GSP regime and examine the effectiveness of the EU's GSP in promoting the export growth of ten ASEAN beneficiary countries.

The authors analyse the trade flows between the EU and ASEAN beneficiary countries under the GSP scheme by referring to trade data (1990‐2007) at the aggregate level, the sectoral level and individual beneficiary country level.

The authors find that using the EU's GSP to promote the exports growth of the ASEAN countries has very limited effectiveness. Although the total EU imports from the ASEAN countries experienced a significant increase during the period 1990‐2007, the preferential imports under the GSP scheme remained stagnated at the same period. However, the least developed ASEAN members reported very high utilization rates and successfully exploited GSP preferences for pushing up their exports to the European market.

This work provides new evidence on whether the EU's GSP really works and to what extent the EU's GSP enhances the export growth of ASEAN beneficiary countries. The empirical findings may provide trade policymakers with some guidance in making EU trade policy.

This study analyzes the impact of exchange rate volatility (ERV) on inbound tourist arrivals from four ASEAN countries namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand during 1970–2017. Volatility in the exchange rates between the tourist currency and ringgit Malaysia is measured using the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity model. The results from Autoregressive Distributed Lagged models indicate that ERV has no significant impact on tourist arrivals from ASEAN to Malaysia. This implies that tourists from these countries may not be sensitive to ERV when choosing Malaysia as their travel destination. There are two possible explanations for the results. First, Malaysian ringgit has been depreciating against major currencies and regional currencies in recent years, which makes ringgit relatively cheaper than other ASEAN currencies. Second, the empirical results of the study support the argument that ERV has a more serious impact on tourist spending compared to tourist arrivals.

The introduction of the 22 member countries of the 4+10+2+6 model of the Asian economy is the immediate task. Japan, Korea, China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar constitute the now-famous 4+10 model. Following the principle of inclusion, Mongolia, Chinese Taipei, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka, as they belong to the regional map of the continent of Asia, are the eight remaining member countries (see Chapter 1). An overview of Asia's 22 member continental economy the AE-22, with its 3.6 billion people (2006) who have made the region of Asia their home in a land area of 20.5 million km² should be welcome. To put these figures in perspective, the AE-22 comprises only 13.7 percent of the world's land area, but is home to over half the world's population. Tables 2.1–2.4, presented below, illustrate the various figures relating to population, land area, GDP, and GDP per capita of the member nations of the AE-22.

World trade has been increasing rapidly and much faster than world output. This study analyzes the trade structures of major dynamic East Asian countries as well as regional subgroups such as ASEAN members and Northeast Asian countries. Emphasis will be on the complementarities that would enhance integration among them through international trade. In addition, potential trade levels for each combination of East Asian countries are estimated by applying the gravity model of trade to the trade flows of21 APEC members, as a reference group. It is estimated to have significant potentiality by regional subgroup, ASEAN or Northeast Asia, and not between the two regional subgroups. However, the potential integration between East Asian countries in different regional subgroups is more significant by considering complementarities in trade compared with the results from the basic gravity model. To enhance economic cooperation between East Asian countries, expanding relationships such as inter-industry trade in natural resources trade and industrial goods between the regional subgroups needs to occur. They should also utilize complementary relationships from intra-industry trade in industrial goods such as electric and electronic equipment, related parts and accessories. And they should focus on the implementation of trade facilitation measures based on global standards.

The ideas expressed in this work are based on those put into practice at the Okuma Corporation of Japan, one of the world′s leading machine tool manufacturers. In common with many other large organizations, Okuma Corporation has to meet the new challenges posed by globalization, keener domestic and international competition, shorter business cycles and an increasingly volatile environment. Intelligent corporate strategy (ICS), as practised at Okuma, is a unified theory of strategic corporate management based on five levels of win‐win relationships for profit/market share, namely: ,1. Loyalty from customers (value for money) – right focus., 2. Commitment from workers (meeting hierarchy of needs) – right attitude., 3. Co‐operation from suppliers (expanding and reliable business) – right connections., 4. Co‐operation from distributors (expanding and reliable business) – right channels., 5. Respect from competitors (setting standards for business excellence) – right strategies. The aim is to create values for all stakeholders. This holistic people‐oriented approach recognizes that, although the world is increasingly driven by high technology, it continues to be influenced and managed by people (customers, workers, suppliers, distributors, competitors). The philosophical core of ICS is action learning and teamwork based on principle‐centred relationships of sincerity, trust and integrity. In the real world, these are the roots of success in relationships and in the bottom‐line results of business. ICS is, in essence, relationship management for synergy. It is based on the premiss that domestic and international commerce is a positive sum game: in the long run everyone wins. Finally, ICS is a paradigm for manufacturing companies coping with change and uncertainty in their search for profit/market share. Time‐honoured values give definition to corporate character; circumstances change, values remain. Poor business operations generally result from human frailty. ICS is predicated on the belief that the quality of human relationships determines the bottom‐line results. ICS attempts to make manifest and explicit the intangible psychological factors for value‐added partnerships. ICS is a dynamic, living, and heuristic‐learning model. There is intelligence in the corporate strategy because it applies commonsense, wisdom, creative systems thinking and synergy to ensure longevity in its corporate life for sustainable competitive advantage.

Free trade agreements have been employed, either unilaterally or as a bloc, as an instrument to overcome the inefficiencies in trade brought about by the prevailing barriers and regulatory measures. During the tenth summit the leaders of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed to integrate their priority sectors with a vision to developing an ASEAN economic community whereby there would be a free flow of goods, services, investment and a freer flow of capital, equitable economic development, and reduced poverty and socio‐economic disparities. This market would have no price discrimination for commodities and against foreign goods, services, capital and labor. The purpose of this paper is to assess the current state of the cross‐border trade in logistics services among ASEAN. The extent of the ease of cross‐border trade is measured in terms of trade friendliness. The trade friendliness is a measure of the openness of ASEAN towards conducting free cross‐border trade.

This study uses a series of semi‐structured interviews with 35 logistics and related firms operating in ASEAN.

It was found that the unwieldy customs procedures and inspections, lack of coordination, and arbitrary rulings are some barriers to freer cross‐border trade within ASEAN.

In this paper, the authors have identified several barriers that influence logistics services across ASEAN. ASEAN must address these barriers before any further attempt of freer trade can be made.

Studies have been conducted for the USA and Europe but not for the Asia‐Pacific. The Asia‐Pacific is a growing region for global trade and therefore assessing the trade openness or friendliness in the logistics sector is useful for taking further policy initiatives for developing an ASEAN economic community.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore market integration among five selected Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) emerging markets (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore) during the pre‐ and post‐1997 financial crisis periods.

Employs two‐step estimation, cointegration and generalized method of moments (GMM).

The study finds that the stock markets in the ASEAN region are cointegrated both during the pre‐ and post‐1997 financial crisis. However, the markets are moving towards a greater integration, particularly during the post‐1997 financial crisis. Finally, as measured by the error correction terms, except the emerging market of Indonesia, all other ASEAN markets appear to be the important bearers of short‐run adjustment to a shock in the long‐run equilibrium relationships in the region both during the pre‐ and post‐crisis periods.

The study only focuses on stock markets of the five founding members of ASEAN, i.e. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines.

The paper reveals that unlike during the pre‐crisis period, the long‐run diversification benefits that can be earned by investors across the ASEAN markets in the post‐crisis period tend to diminish.

The study is among the first to use two‐step estimation, cointegration and GMM to re‐examine market integration either in the emerging or developed markets.

The economic success of East Asia was due to an export-led growth strategy, which was heavily dependent on the global trading system underpinned by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). In recent years, however; East Asian countries have shifted their trade policy focus to regional agreements and made Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) among themselves arid with other regions. Government organization has been restructured to increase FTA activities. Generally, the current literature predicts that FTA activities of East Asia would help to increase the welfare of the region. In this paper; we offer a critical assessment of East Asia FTAs. We note that East Asia FTAs provide incomplete coverage of sectors and are likely to lead to an inefficient resource allocation. FTA movements are not matched with actual trade flows. The benefits of East Asia FTAs are fairly limited and potential benefits, if any, would not likely be materialized in the near future. Our overall assessment is that the recent policy shift in East Asian countries from multilateral trade orientation or unilateral action to regionalism or a parallel multilateral and regional trade approach will not produce much gain. The governments should increase their efforts at economic reform and reduce barriers to trade and investment, rather than to allocate more resource and manpower to FTA activities.