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Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic and volcanic activity.
Southeast Asia consists of two geographic regions: Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as Indochina, comprises Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Peninsular Malaysia, and Maritime Southeast Asia, which is analogous to the Malay Archipelago, comprises Brunei, East Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore. Geographically Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are sometimes grouped in the Southeast Asia subregion, although politically they are rarely grouped as such. The same is true for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India, and occasionally regions of the Seven Sister States such as Manipur.*
*Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Brunei Darussalam then joined on 7 January 1984, Vietnam on 28 July 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999, making up what is today the ten Member States of ASEAN.*
*Source: http://www.asean.org/about_ASEAN.html
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While the region's economy greatly depends on agriculture, manufacturing and services are becoming more important. Newly industrialized countries including Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines while Singapore and Brunei are affluent developed economies. Vietnam is notably making steady progress in developing its industrial sectors. The region notably manufactures textiles, electronic high-tech goods such as microprocessors and heavy industrial products such as automobiles. Reserves of oil are also present in the region.
Tourism has been a key factor in economic development for many Southeast Asian countries. According to UNESCO, “tourism, if correctly conceived, can be a tremendous development tool and an effective means of preserving the cultural diversity of our planet.” In 1995, Singapore was the regional leader in tourism receipts relative to GDP at over 8%. By 1998, those receipts had dropped to less than 6% of GDP while Thailand and Lao PDR increased receipts to over 7%.*
*Excerpt from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia
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| ASEAN Countries Returning to Pre-crisis Growth |
The six major ASEAN countries have rebounded from the global economic crisis, with medium-term growth prospects returning to pre-crisis levels, according to the OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Development Centre's 2010 Southeast Asian Economic Outlook.
With economic recovery underway across the region, GDP growth will average 6% annually across the ASEAN-6 countries over the 2011-15 period, which is about the same level as the period 2003-07.*
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2010 |
2015 |
Average 2003-07 |
Average 2011-15 |
Indonesia |
6.1 |
7.1 |
5.5 |
6.6 |
Malaysia |
6.5 |
5.3 |
6.0 |
5.5 |
Philippines |
6.0 |
4.4 |
5.7 |
4.6 |
Singapore |
14.0 |
4.5 |
7.5 |
4.7 |
Thailand |
7.0 |
5.1 |
5.6 |
5.2 |
Viet Nam |
6.8 |
7.2 |
8.1 |
7.1 |
6 countries average |
7.3 |
6.0 |
6.1 |
6.0 |
Source: OECD Development Centre (MPF-SAEO 2010) To access excel format: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888932344957*Excerpt from: http://www.oecd.org/document/2/0,3746,en_2649_33731_46367966_1_1_1_1,00.html
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The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) was realized on 1 January 2010, with the ASEAN-6 removing the duties on 99.65 per cent of all tariff lines under the Common Effective Preferential Tariff Scheme for the ASEAN Free Trade Area (CEPT-AFTA), while Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Viet Nam have reduced 98.96 per cent of total tariff lines to 0.5 per cent range. The ASEAN trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) also came into effect on 17 May 2010.
The main sources of FDI inflows to ASEAN are with its Dialogue Partners – the European Union has a share of 18.3 per cent, Japan 13.4 per cent, and the United States 8.5 per cent. Inflows from sources within the Member States accounted for 11.2 per cent of ASEAN inflows In 2009, pushing ASEAN as the third largest source of investment in the region. The services, manufacturing, and mining and quarrying sectors were the top three components in FDI inflows into ASEAN.
In addition to the positive figures that reflect ASEAN’s healthy economic relationships with its Dialogue Partners, the year 2010 also saw the implementation of various Free Trade Area (FTA) agreements with them. The ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) and the ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Area (AKFTA) were realized on 1 January 2010.
Apart from the ACFTA, and the Agreement Establishing the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA), the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement and the ASEAN-China Investment also came into force on 1 January 2010.* *Excerpt from: http://www.aseansec.org/24985.htm?bcsi_scan_2FDE53250A62532F=0&bcsi_scan_filename=24985.htm |
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The economy of Thailand is a newly industrialized economy. It is a heavily export-dependent economy, with exports accounting for more than two thirds of gross domestic product (GDP).
Recently, Thailand experienced GDP growth by 8.0% in 2010 making it one of the fastest growing economies in Asia and the fastest growing economy in South East Asia. The country has a GDP net worth of 9.5 trillion Baht (on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis), or US$584 billion (PPP) making it the 24th largest economy in the world. This classifies Thailand as the 2nd largest economy in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Despite this, Thailand ranks midway in the wealth spread in Southeast Asia as it is the 4th richest nation according to GDP per capita, after Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia. Thailand's nominal economic output as of June 2010 is $313.8 billion USD, while holding some $172 billion in foreign exchange assets which ranks 11th in world. Thailand has strong automobile industry which grew by 63% in 2010 with 1.6 million cars produced ranking it as 13th in the motor vehicle producing countries in the world. Experts predict that by the year 2015 Thailand will be one of the top 10 motor vehicle producing countries in the world.
Thailand's economy functions as an anchor economy for the neighboring developing economies of Laos, Burma, and Cambodia. Thailand's recovery from the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis depended mainly on exports, among various other factors. Thailand ranks high among the world's automotive export industries along with manufacturing of electronic goods.
Tourism revenues are on the rise and contributing to about 6% of GDP. The GDP growth of Thailand was 8.0% in 2010, higher than previous highs of 5-7% under the previous civilian administration. Thailand enjoys high foreign investment and consumer confidence.
Unemployment is at 1.2% as year 2010, with estimations of falling to 1% by the year 2012 therefore Thailand has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world. Decades of economic growth reduced poverty in Thailand. Thailand enjoys one of the lowest poverty rates in Asia. In 2010, Thailand, along with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia were the only countries in Asia with less than 2% of the country's total population living under $1.25 per day.*
*Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Thailand |
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Vietnam achieved around 8% annual GDP growth from 1990 to 1997 and continued at around 7% from 2000 to 2005, making it one of the world's fastest growing economies. Growth by 8.5 percent, 6.3, 5.3 and 6.8 for the year of 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively, but inflation rate hit 11.8 percent in December 2010 on a year-on-year basis, according to a GSO estimate. The dong has been devalued three times since late last year. Before 1998, foreign investment grew threefold and domestic savings quintupled. Manufacturing, information technology and high-tech industries form a large and fast-growing part of the national economy. Vietnam is a relative newcomer to the oil business, but today it is the third-largest oil producer in Southeast Asia with output of 400,000 barrels per day (64,000 m3/d). Vietnam is one of Asia's most open economies: two-way trade is around 160% of GDP, more than twice the ratio for China and over four times India's.
In 2009, the nominal GDP reached $92.439 billion, with nominal GDP per capita of $1,060. According to a forecast in December 2005 by Goldman-Sachs, Vietnamese economy will become the 17th largest economy in the world in 2025, with nominal GDP of $ 436 billion and GDP per capita of 4,357 USD. According to the forecast by the PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2008, Vietnam may be fastest growing of emerging economies by 2025 with a potential growth rate of almost 10% per annum in real dollar terms that could push it up to around 70% of the size of the UK economy by 2050.
Vietnam was accepted into the WTO on November 7, 2006. Vietnam's chief trading partners include China, Japan, Australia, ASEAN countries, the U.S. and Western European countries.*
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