Asia Competitiveness Institute, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
2021 has tested the ability of the AMS to weather a crisis. As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, disruptions to the global economy continue to cast a shadow upon the development of ASEAN. Amidst this, the economies of ASEAN have made the digital economy a key component of their strategy to achieve a new phase […]
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Gone are the days when climate change was talked about in future tense – it is happening now and happening fast. With more extreme weather events battering the region, Southeast Asia (SEA) must champion not only disaster anticipation and preparedness but also disaster mitigation equally well. As energy consumption in the region is projected to […]
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The ‘take, make, dispose’ approach that formed the bedrock of the linear economy has come under scrutiny with a growing focus on circular economy. With countries moving to build their own capabilities, regional groupings too have sought to address the issue collectively. As such, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has launched the Framework […]
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Summary: The world economy has experienced multiple turmoils in the past three years. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the first wave of global economic decline, in which global GDP growth contracted by 3.3% in 2020. The global economy subsequently recovered in 2021, reaping an annual increase of 5.8%, amid the optimism that the arrival of vaccines […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Summary: 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 […]
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Summary: 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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