This exploratory study examines the importance of attachment to home country (or attachment to home domicile in the case of Hong Kong which is not a sovereign nation), as a determinant of people’s inclination to stay or leave their home country. There have been other competing constructs, such as place attachment, which is the bonding […]
Summary The pandemic has changed consumers’ habit. The overall retail sales in Singapore have recovered to the pre-pandemic level, but some sectors are still lagging. Instead of dining in the restaurants, some have opted to buy more from the supermarkets. The greater dispersion in retail sales indices imply reallocations of consumption among Singaporean consumers. Whether […]
After introducing the GBA (Greater Bay Area) Framework Agreement, Foshan witnessed a surge in greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2018. From 2018 to 2020, the average annual number of greenfield FDI contracts, and contracted foreign capital, went up to 751 and USD 8,675 million, respectively. This was as opposed to previous figures of 200 […]
Note: The ASEAN-10 average score is standardized as zero; Vietnam’s scores above zero show above-average performance, while scores below zero indicate below-average performance. Summary In ACI’s ASEAN competitiveness analysis, Vietnam has performed in technological infrastructure competitiveness, leapfrogging from a regional laggard in 2000 to above the ASEAN-10 average in 2018. This improvement is due to […]
The paper “Quality Upgrading and Import Competition: Impact of Chinese Competition on Developing Asia” shows the differential impact of Chinese competition on Asian countries, where it concerns their exports to the US. Given similarities in comparative advantage and geography with China, it seems that most Asian countries should be negatively affected, however, based on the […]
Summary In 2021, Singapore experienced a strong rebound in outward greenfield investments, mainly through investments in real estate, retail and the setting-up of data centres. The recovery in Singapore’s greenfield FDI outflows overtook most of the other top Asian investors. Highlights Australia emerged as a top greenfield FDI destination for Singapore in 2021. China-Australia bilateral […]
The paper “Trade Policy in a Ricardian World with International Knowledge Diffusion” shows that, although the “non-discrimination” principle is optimal from a static perspective, when dynamic knowledge diffusion is taken into account, countries will set trade policy discriminatively so as to reorient trade towards more technologically advanced trading partners for faster economic growth. The author […]
Summary Rising affluence in regional economies is linked with greater purchasing power – however, the downside is the creation of more waste. Over 24.9 million metric tonnes of E-Waste were generated across Asia in 2019, much of which came from countries with higher GDP per capita. Furthermore, increases in GDP per capita led to a […]
Internationalization is a major strategic component of most business firms’ activities (Meilin, 1992), and key models of internationalization tend to describe it as taking place gradually and in distinct stages (Boisot and Meyer, 2008; Johanson & Vahlne, 1990; Meilin, 1992; Vernon, 1966). During their internationalization process, firms shift progressively from low involvement (e.g., exporting) to […]
Summary ACI’s ASEAN Economic Competitiveness Analysis finds that Singapore’s labour market has traded off Labour Market Flexibility for Productivity Performance. Singapore has fallen from being the most flexible market at the start of the study in 2000 to being below the ASEAN-10 average in 2018. In contrast, the Productivity Performance of Singapore has grown with […]