Southeast Asian Economic Outlook 2010
The global financial crisis has offered an important opportunity for Southeast Asian countries to rethink past growth strategies and project new development visions. This inaugural edition of the Southeast Asian Economic Outlook looks at current efforts to rebalance growth for the region and at what form growth will take in the future.
The analyses and discussions presented in this volume highlight the need to implement five-year development plans with a view to rebalancing growth and instituting a credible fiscal policy framework conducive to greater fiscal discipline. In particular, well-designed fiscal rules, independent fiscal agencies and a medium-term budgetary framework are crucial elements. Although such institutions are becoming increasingly important across OECD countries, there is room for improving the institutional settings in Southeast Asia.
The 2010 Outlook also addresses the fact that the future development of Southeast Asian countries is likely to be uneven across sectors and economies, unless necessary measures are taken. Sectors of new growth in the region will need to be supported by going beyond the current narrow range of electronic products and developing more niche and speciality products that are priorities of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Another area of policy action proposed is to develop more integrated transport networks. Given the huge investment needs for infrastructure development, new financing methods, such as infrastructure revenue bonds, should be further explored to promote public-private partnerships in the region.
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Regional Integration: A Sectoral Approach
OECD Development Centre
ASEAN countries are currently engaged in a two-pronged effort to create a fully integrated ASEAN Economic Community while increasing the international competitiveness of their member countries. These efforts are being driven by trade agreements, both among the ASEAN countries and with partners elsewhere in Asia and beyond. ASEAN countries’ linkages with global production networks have been further strengthened and transformed by China’s emergence as a regional production centre. In order to reap fully the benefits of their increasing integration and to rebalance their growth, ASEAN countries will need to reduce their excessive export dependence on a narrow range of electronic products (mostly parts and components) and move up the technological ladder in the value chain. ASEAN countries also need to develop more niche and specialty products in the nine priority goods sectors (PGS) in order to develop new growth areas.