The ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint targets an ASEAN single market in 2015. This is an ambitious reform agenda that seeks to ensure the free flow of services, investment, and skilled labor along with the free flow of goods and the freer flow of capital in the ASEAN region. For logistics...

The Mindanao electric power problem, which led to a crisis situation in summer 2012, is primarily due to inadequate baseload capacity and unbalanced generation capacity mix. The crisis might stage a comeback when the days of relatively cooler weather and heavier rainfall are over and the annual...

As 2015 draws near, assessing ASEAN's progress toward the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) defined by the AEC Blueprint is necessary and instructive. This paper constitutes the Mid-Term Review (MTR) of the AEC Blueprint for the Philippines. The Philippines Country Report presents the results of...

Based on available statistics, between 127 and 130 million people in Southeast Asia lack access to electricity. At least 228 million still rely on traditional biomass for cooking and lack access to clean and modern cooking facilities, with dire consequences for their quality of life and human...

The study looks at the rarely studied customs brokerage activity in the Philippines and its role in facilitating trade given the ongoing push to modernize customs administration. It analyzes how the customs brokerage profession is being regulated and synthesizes insights on opposing views on the...

Global experience in regional energy market integration presents broad elements of integration, i.e., binding agreements, physical infrastructure, standardized or harmonized rules of operation, and governing or coordinating institutions. The pathway to ASEAN Energy Market Integration (AEMI) will...

This study articulates the results of the research team's conversations with regulators and desk review of policies in the sectors affecting logistics and trade facilitation in the Philippines. The study covers air transport, land transport, maritime transport, logistics services, and customs...

The Sitio Electrification Program (SEP) and the Household Electrification Program (HEP) are two ongoing rural electrification programs of the government. To assist the Department of Budget and Management in implementing its zero-based budgeting approach, we assessed the 2011 SEP and HEP...

This study assesses the sources and levels of infrastructure financing in the Philippines for the last five years (2008-2012). The mapping of fiscal resources showed that there had been underinvestment in infrastructure. To illustrate, in 2008-2012, public infrastructure spending as a share of...

Managing urban growth in countries requires that leaders plan ahead using national physical plans that, among others, safeguard land for utilities and physical infrastructure decades ahead, deliberately configures transport networks (including strategic seaports, controlled expressways and, if...