GLOBAL AND APPLIED ECONOMY

Group Members

BEH HEE LENG SCM-023013KONG CHUAN CHENG SCM-02250 LICIA TAN SCM-022667SOH YEE SIN SCM-022868

Economic integration

> Agreements between nations in a geographic region to reduce, and ultimately remove, tariff and non-tariff barriers to the free flow of goods, services, and factors of production between each other

The Levels Of Regional Economic

Integration

Can Asian countries form Asian Union?

European union, the most advanced regional trade and investment bloc in the world today.

Asian Union

Economic

Social

Strategic

Political

Asia Cooperation Dialogue

> Intergovernmental organization

>Formed in 2002

> Promote Asian cooperation at a continental level and to help integrate separate regional organizations

i.e., ASEAN, SAARC and Gulf Cooperation Council

Objectives of ACD

> Promote interdependence among Asian countries in all areas of cooperation

> Enhance Asia's economic competitiveness in the global market

> Serve as the missing link in Asian cooperationTransform the Asian continent into an Asian Community

Asia Map

Economic System

> Islamic economic system

> Mixed economic system

> Socialist economic system

> Communist economic system

Countries Debt in Asia

Countries Debt in Asia

Countries Debt in Asia

Current Account Balance

Advantages of an Asian Union

Expansion of trade in goods and services

Increase in FDI

Improvement in infrastructure and services (eg. Energy and transportation)

Expansion of trade

> Potential increase in intra-regional trade from $0.5 billion to $2 billion

> Greater trade diversification, given that SAARC countries do not trade as much with each other, as they do with the rest of the world

> Switching of trade from informal to formal channels will increase consumer welfare, reduce efficiency losses and increase government revenue

Total trade gain

Integration boost FDI inflows: The EU experience

Integration boost FDI inflows: The NAFTA experience

Improvement in infrastructure and services:

Regional Energy Trade

> Significant unutilized complementarities in energy endowments

> National energy systems are autarchic

> Fast increasing demand, driven by economic growth and access expansion, will further increase the opportunity costs of keeping the national energy systems isolated

India

• Electricity and gas imports • Trading base-load power for peak power

Pakistan • Gas imports • Energy transit

Nepal and Bhutan • Hydropower exports • Base-load electricity generation imports

Bangladesh • Gas exports

Improvement in infrastructure and services:

Regional Transportation > Increase inter and intra-regional connectivity

> New transit routes to Central Asia, China and NE India

> Reduced border crossing times and costs

> Increase transport asset utilization leading to lower costs and lower tariffs

> Allowing cross-border movement without transshipment

> Improved port systems

Challenges of Asian Union

ASEAN

ASEAN

Brunei

Singapore

Laos

Malaysia

Philipines Vietnam

Indonesia

Cambodia

ThailandBurma

Asian Union

ASEAN

economic

giants

Asian Union

Unable to achieve political and economic unity

> Levels of economic development and democratic government vary sharply between them

Eg. Myanmar is attempting to introduce democracy after 50 years of military rule.

Indonesia and the Philippines which have gone much further down the road to democracy.

Economic difference

> huge gaps between Asian countries.

Rich: Singapore (per capita income: $29,500)

Poor: Indonesia (per capita income $1,600)

Poorest: Myanmar (per capita income $200)

Country debt

Potential gap between some Asian countries.> Relationship of ASEAN with China changed dramatically over past four decades.

> Chinese sponsored communist insurgencies were one of the greatest threats to the security of Thailand, Malaysia, and, Cambodia.

> Cold wars among Asian countries.

Border Disputes

Border disputes among China and India.

> Chinese sent an unusual number of military patrols into the mountains of Ladakh, a remote high-altitude desert at the northern tip of India.

> Indian military officials protested.

> China foreign ministry denied.

Territory dispute Territory dispute among China and Japan

A small uninhabited group of islands known as the  Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China are located in the East China Sea between Japan.

> China and Taiwan say the islands have been part of Chinese territory for centuries and were seized by Japan in 1895 at the end of the Sino-Japanese war. Japan refuses to acknowledge that the islands are even disputed.

Territory dispute among China and Japan

The role of EU > For the economic size and political dominance in world politics, the U.S. is still the most influential power in the whole of Asia.

> EU is trying to foster and develop its relations with the whole of the continent of Asia through ASEM, the Asia-Europe Meeting.

> USA possesses its institutional link with the economies of Asia, and it does not want to be excluded from Asia by developments coming out of East Asia and lead by ASEAN.

> It has become an essential strategic objective to obstruct projects like the Asian Union.

> USA is still the biggest counterbalance against rising China for many Asian countries.

> Asian Union is not possible to be formed.

Conclusion…

Thank you for

listening… =)

Mankiw. (2008). Essential of Economics. Canada: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Phiv, C. (2010, Jun 23). Asian Union and Interreligious Dialogue. Retrieved from eRenlai Magazine: http://www.erenlai.com/index.php/en/focus/2010-focus/march-2010/3156-asian-union-and-interreligious-dialogue

Tisdall, S. (2005, April 12). Hopes and fears of an Asian Union. Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/apr/12/burma.tisdallbriefing

Weiss, S. A. (2007, Nov 27). ASEAN to form Asian Union? Retrieved from Global Research: http://www.globalresearch.ca/a

References

 Alan Griffiths, Stuart Wall. (2013). Applied Economics. England: Pearson Education Limited.

Bank, W. (2013). The World Bank . Retrieved from World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org/

Colakoglu, S. (2012, July 10). Is an Asian Union Possible? Retrieved from The Journal of Turkish Weekly: http://www.turkishweekly.net/columnist/3645/is-an-asian-union-possible.html

Gravity. (2009, May 13). SINO + ASEAN = East Asian Unification? Not Quite Part I. Retrieved from Word Press: http://pmsol3.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/sino-asean-east-asian-unification-not-quite-part-i/

HARRIS, G. (2013, May 2). Where China Meets India in a High-Altitude Desert, Push Comes to Shove. Retrieved from My New York Time: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/world/asia/where-china-meets-india-push-comes-to-shove.html?_r=1&