As Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) approaches end 2015, this report takes stock of the progress to date and draws out lessons for the next stage of ASEAN's connectivity journey. The realization of an integrated ASEAN community demands connectedness vis improved and expanded...

This report provides a cross-country overview of the policy and regulatory framework for digital financial services (DFS) in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries from a financial inclusion perspective. It was carried out at the request of the ASEAN Working Committee on...

This report is intended to support digital financial services (DFS) policymakers in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) and regulators endeavors, by providing a structured approach for the analysis of DFS and financial inclusion. It provides examples of how countries are...

Board gender diversity has improved across all regions over the last two decades. In the early 2000s, there were only a handful of countries in Western Europe where women held more than ten percent of board seats. Today, many countries exceed the double-digit threshold. There is also increasing...

World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the economic shutdown of the advanced economies, which will result in the first major recession in ASEAN countries since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. He described how in East Asia and the Pacific,...

Can regionalism do what multilateralism has so far failed to do-promote greater openness of services markets? Although previous research has pointed to the wider and deeper legal commitments under regional agreements as proof that it can, no previous study has assessed the impact of such...

This paper presents estimates of the relationship between the share of income accruing to the middle class and gross domestic product per capita of economies from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The increase in gross domestic product per capita that these economies experienced during...

This chapter begins with a brief summary of economic growth and structural changes in the region since the 1950s and of agricultural and other economic policies as they affected agriculture before and after the various reforms, and in several cases fundamental regime changes, of the past...