Do ASEAN people identify themselves first as Southeast Asians, as nationals of their country, or as members of their ethnic or local community? In a heterogeneous region where each country is culturally distinct and each holds on to its hard-earned sovereignty, how does the process of regional community-building fare? As ASEAN declares 2020 as the Year of ASEAN Identity, it is timely to reexamine its regional identity and its implications for creating an ASEAN Community.
The United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 and presented 17 goals and 169 detailed targets to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development by 2030. Accordingly, as a member of the United Nations, North Korea also established a new strategic framework for cooperation with the United Nations in 2016 to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This UN Strategic Framework (UNSF) has covered the period 2017-2021 and was cosigned by the UN Country Team (UNCT) led by the Resident Coordinator in DPR Korea. Major UN agencies, including FAO, UNFPA, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, are participating in the UNSF Steering Committee, which currently serves as a representative of UN agencies residing in Pyongyang, and under consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea it has set up Thematic Groups (TGs) and Sectoral Working Groups (SWGs) by detailed issues to coordinate bilateral and multilateral cooperation projects.
Regional cooperation and integration. Regional cooperation and integration (RCI) is a process in which a group of countries actively cooperate to achieve common goals for mutual benefit. This facilitates market-driven regional integration and the production of regional public goods. RCI can encompass different elements, such as promoting and agreeing on trade and investment; developing cross-border infrastructure; deepening regional financial markets; and spurring the cooperation of financial intermediaries, climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, and the harmonization and alignment of sector- and theme-based policies and regulations. RCI has become a valued development strategy; the United Nations recognizes it as an important tool to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Regional cooperation and integration (RCI) is vital for the development of Asia and the Pacific. It plays a critical role in accelerating economic growth, reducing poverty and economic disparity, raising productivity and employment, and strengthening institutions. For the Asian Development Bank, fostering RCI is a cornerstone of its support to its developing member countries and helps amplify the impact of its other investments. This conference report explores opportunities and challenges for accelerating RCI in the region. It focuses on economic corridors, emerging RCI initiatives, cooperation for financial stability and resilience, and regional public goods.
In 2017, the Institute completed a total of 57 research projects/studies in the areas of agriculture (7), competition/trade and industry/regional integration (6), disaster risk reduction and management (3), finance/credit (1), fiscal policy and budget management (2), gender and development (1), governance/regulations/institutions (6), health (2), infrastructure/transportation/communication (3), labor/livelihood/employment (1), poverty and social protection (16), services policy/innovation/research and development (4), and policy tools/statistics/others (5).
This paper maps the items in the proposed WTO Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) with existing initiatives in ASEAN to explore possible synergies between the two.
The maritime zone that separates the Southern Philippines from Sabah is a space of largely unregulated economic activity and movement of goods. Informal barter trade and the movement of people, products and produce by small, woodenhulled boats is central to economies on all sides of the border; particularly in the provinces of Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Basilan, where goods from Sabah are cheaper and more plentifully available than those produced or imported elsewhere in the Philippines. Familial and ethnic ties sustain sea-faring trading communities which sit across state boundaries. Informal cross-border trade in the maritime zone that separates the Sulu archipelago in Southern Philippines and Sabah in East Malaysia is an ancient economic and political phenomenon. Also known as barter trade, it dates back centuries, long before the creation of colonial states in the 1500s, and the declaration of independence and legal borders between the two countries in the mid-twentieth century. While the system has evolved over time with the use of money in exchange of goods, the term 'barter trade' is still used to highlight the informality of buying and selling untaxed imported items, and the vital role of traders and transporters in moving these goods across the maritime border. However, while Malaysian authorities have encouraged informal barter trade to continue and flourish, the Philippine government considers these largely unofficial economic activities as illegal trade or smuggling, part and parcel of a looming shadow economy in the region that the state needs to regulate.
