ASEAN: Regional Integration and Reforms

ASEAN integration and health services

I t seems to be an exciting moment for the ASEAN countries to enter the era of the ASEAN Community. For the ASEAN 600 million people (8.6% of the World population), this regional initiative is expected to bring about economic prosperity and development in socio-cultural well-being of the people. However, development policies do not always complement one another as we promote economic growth and...

Disasters, resilience, and the ASEAN integration

T he recent havoc caused by typhoon Haiyan in central Philippines provides an example of the grim reality of the impact of disasters in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) region. This is personal to me as many of my relatives and friends died and many more had their properties all washed away. You see, I was born in Tacloban and grew up in the city. It pained me to see my 87-ye...

Iran’s Resistance Economy and Regional Integration

Iran’s ‘resistance economy’ is sometimes presented as defensive strategy. Despite Washington’s ‘New Middle East’ wars and the rapid evaporation of expected benefits from the long JCPOA (nuclear deal) process, a certain illusion remains that a general ‘normalisation’ with the outside powers might still bring economic benefits to the country. Nevertheless, it remains true that, while Iran is a la...

Economic Reforms and Global Integration

Developing the ASEAN Regional Road Safety Strategy

In 2011, more than 75,000 people died in road crashes in the ten member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and many times this number sustained long term injuries. Improving road safety outcomes in ASEAN is not only important for the welfare and economic benefit of these countries, but given that a significant proportion of the world’s population lives in ASEAN, it...