In May 2013 the ASEAN+6 countries began to negotiate the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The objective of this paper is to analyze the feasibility of constructing such a region-wide agreement and to examine ways to multilateralize it. The paper first reviews free trade...

Nepal’s lackluster economic performance during the post-conflict period (that is, after November 2006) has been driven by remittances from the export of labor services and the improved performance of the agricultural sector, which is still very much weather dependent. The authors make the...

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is getting increasingly assertive as a player in regional and world arenas. The group, which includes Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Viet Nam, Laos, Burma, Cambodia and Brunei, has focused on economic integration...

ASEAN member countries are moving towards achieving the ASEAN Economic Community with the timeline set at 2015. It is therefore important for policymakers in the region to sustain the momentumor perhaps even accelerate the pacetowards establishing the AEC. Policy measures are being implemented...

The private sector is the driver of growth in most ASEAN economies. It is therefore expected to play a significant role in the process of economic integration in ASEAN. In the Philippines, the private sector has dominated the economy, contributing about 95 percent of GDP, but it has not lived up...

The 21st century, as being said the world over, will belong to Asia. The regional economic cooperation in Asia is developing fast and well with the ASEAN as a center and with the positive participations of major Asian nations such as China, India and Japan. The cooperation has shown that the...

This paper summarizes the conceptual rationale for investment liberalization to fully exploit the potential of regional trading arrangements. It goes on to examine the treatment of investment in emerging FTAs/RTAs in the Asia-Pacific region and the specific investment provisions and their...

The 14th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting was held in Hanoi, Viet Nam on November 18-19 under the theme of Toward a Dynamic Community for Sustainable Development and Prosperity. The theme conveys two messages : One is to enhance trade and investment in a rapidly...