Asia Competitiveness Institute, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
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 […]
Read MoreSummary 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 […]
Read MoreSummary Intra-regional trade dependency is highly heterogeneous across the ASEAN-10 countries, with Laos being the most dependent with approximately 60% trade intensity with ASEAN-10, in terms of both export and import. Singapore’s export structure became less dependent on the ASEAN countries (from 30% to 25%) from 2018 to 2020. However, the import structure of Singapore […]
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The digital economy has grown in importance around the world. It refers to the broad range of economic activities that use digitized information and knowledge as key factors of production (Asian Development Bank, 2018). Enablers include the internet, cloud computing, big data, fintech, and other new digital technologies. Asia’s digital transformation is already having a […]
Read MoreSummary Southeast Asia is one of the regions most exposed to the dangers of climate change, as well as a major contributor of greenhouse gases. To combat climate change, the region must wean off its use of fossil fuels, and make a transition to the use of renewable energies. Scholars and analysts have also noted […]
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The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the rate of digitalization across many everyday activities, one of which is payment modes. As e-commerce levels rose and the need for contactless payment methods became more urgent, the increased adoption of digital payments has been welcomed. With rapid changes in technology in recent years, the traditional methods of financial […]
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Indonesia’s overarching goal to expand its basic digital infrastructure first emerged in the 1990s, through the idea of the Palapa Ring project. The project aimed to provide internet access to the entirety of the 34 provinces in the archipelagic nation and was completed recently in 2019. In 2014, the percentage of households in Indonesia with […]
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“Digital” The new byword and frontier in economic growth but despite all the buzz and attention, what does it actually mean for the economies of ASEAN? ACI’s recent webinar titled “Challenges and Opportunities in ASEAN’s Digital Economy” hosted on Friday, 24 Sep 2021 tackled this issue in depth. Speakers from ACI and Mr Konesh Kochhal, […]
Read MoreSummary In Asia, where there is a clear recognition of the benefits of broad digital access, we see that there are signs of rapid technological leapfrogging in Infocomm infrastructure. The Service Penetration Rate of at least LTE/WiMAX mobile networks in Asia has ballooned rapidly in the brief period between 2015 – 2019. In most of […]
Read MoreSummary As souring relations between the United States and China continue to take center stage and grab all the geopolitical headlines, attention on ASEAN has increased. The region has become subject to a geopolitical tug of war, and despite its protestations, are being increasingly pressured to choose between the two superpowers. This situation makes research […]
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