Asia Regional Integration Center

This edition of the Pacific Economic Monitor examines 2011 budget outcomes and 2012 budget plans in ADB's Pacific developing member countries. Download the report. 

Economic growth in emerging East Asia will continue to moderate to 7.2% in 2012 from 7.5% in 2011—as growing sovereign debt problems in Europe and an anemic US economy raise the spectre of a deep global economic downturn, says the Asian Development Bank’s latest Asia Economic Monitor.  In the event that both the eurozone and the US economies contract sharply, the impact on emerging East Asia would be serious yet manageable, the report says. Download report and press release. Watch video and listen to the podcast.

Next week in Baku, Azerbaijan, ministers from ten countries spanning the Caucuses, and Central, East and South Asia will gather to mark a decade of achievement, including $17 billion of investments in energy, trade and transportation under the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program (CAREC). Established in 2001, CAREC brings together Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It promotes the implementation of regional projects in energy, transport, and trade facilitation. Read more. Visit the CAREC Institute website.

Eli M. Remolona, Chief Representative for Asia and the Pacific of the Bank for International Settlements will discuss the issues involved in the further deepening of ASEAN financial markets. Of particular interest is the development of a deep and liquid corporate bond market, where regional cooperation is essential. Confirm attendance with Ruby Santiago.

Shintaro Hamanaka assesses whether technical assistance obligations under free trade agreements (FTAs) are WTO-plus. By presenting a detailed textual analysis of World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements and several FTAs in Asia, the paper identifies how much additional technical assistance developing member countries can enjoy if they sign North–South FTAs with developed countries. Read more

South-South trade and trade agreements are booming amid the stalled Doha trade talks and a fragile world economy. In Asia alone, trade agreements have grown from only 3 to 61 between 2000 and 2010. This column by Ganeshan Wignaraja examines Asia’s experience and argues that South-South trade agreements should increase their coverage of goods and services and improve consistency with global rules to fully support South-South trade. Read more.  

In an interview with CNBC, OREI Head Iwan J. Azis says the impact of the global economic crisis on Asia depends on how effective government policies are in curbing the eurozone and US debt crises fallout. Watch video.

S. Hamanaka employs a multiple mirror technique to identify the magnitude of direction and commodity misclassification in Cambodian trade statistics. The multiple mirror technique is an improvement from the more commonly used single bilateral mirror comparison of trade statistics. Read more.