1.

As the world today becomes more complex in terms of politics and economics, there are agreement
or treaties created in order to maintain the nation’s stability and development. The Association of
Southeast Asian (ASEAN) leaders hope to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful
community of Southeast Asian nations while creating a community that lived in shared stability and
prosperity. The purpose of establishing an integrated economic community is to accelerate economic
growth, enhance trade development in the region, and allow the freer movement of goods, services,
skilled labor, and capital.

There are approximately 600 million people across the ten ASEAN member countries (Brunei
Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and
Vietnam) that will be affected by this regional partnership.

Does the ASEAN really help its members or it created more disturbances that it should be?

There is a substantial list of opportunities associated with AEC integration. For instance, economic
integration provides opportunities to boost economic stability in the region. Another benefit is that
integration would turn ASEAN into a more competitive region within the world economy. A stronger
regional economy will help to improve the living standards of the ASEAN population by reducing
poverty through economic development.
Lower cost of living is another benefit that the ASEAN offers. The ASEAN Economic Community wants
to eliminate if not lessen the taxes exporting between countries, which will lower the prices of goods.
This open flow of goods and services means that your money will go much further as products
become cheaper.

However in every opportunity corresponds to another threat and challenge. Economic Division is a
stumbling block could be the glaring economic divide between the lesser developed
Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar and the richer Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei,
Thailand and the Philippines.

The lopsided growth of infrastructure in these countries could be a challenge in implementing

projects, and corruption may also play spoilsport.

Another hiccup that the ASEAN faces is the insufficiency of Asian Identity. Singapore's Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong correctly pointed out that one of the constraints was that the nations do not have a
collective identity needed to take the AEC forward.

"One of the constraints on the governments, and one of the reasons Asean finds it difficult to make
progress together is because there is not a very strong sense of Asean identity. It's really a
Singaporean identity, or Malaysian or Indonesian. So that's the first priority," Lee was quoted saying
by local media.

The ASEAN's purpose is for every member's good but does this purpose materialize? As a countrymen
of one of its members I myself should be aware regarding this group – its intention and goals. As
much as we want to help each other, we should always realize that part of the results are not always
the outcome that we wanted. So when will be the ASEAN equates the European Union? When we will
be able to witness the benefits it purports to offer?

As for now, what we should do is to support and be as aware as possible. Sharing thoughts regarding
their plans and being vocal on your position regarding their decisions is what we can do as a normal
countrymen. Try to be active politically and economically so that our leaders will be have a basis and
opportunity to hear our opinion because being a member is not a personal endeavour it is for our
nation.
2. The Philippines still lags behind most of its peers in Southeast Asia in attracting foreign direct
investments (FDI) despite attaining record high inflows in 2017.

Despite the improvement from the previous years, the amount of FDI the country received still paled
in comparison with the top four recipients namely, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

An organization once said there are “troubling indicators” that significant to the potential foreign
investments, especially in information technology and manufacturing at economic zones, are being
postponed and even going to competing countries.

This has led the group to question as to whether the Philippines is capable of receiving as much FDI as
Vietnam, which has emerged as a major FDI destination in ASEAN in recent years.

The study indicated that the Philippines and Vietnam are nearly compatible in most aspects, with the
sizes of their workforces almost similar.

It said the Philippines, however, has an important advantage as an English-speaking nation, but also
has downsides such as major manufacturing cost factors like electricity, minimum wages, and number
of non-working holidays are considerably higher.

Experts agree the Philippines has the potential to compete with Vietnam in manufacturing. However,
Philippines success will depend on how well the Philippines can reduce the gap in costs of production.

Vulnerable to high inflation is another indicator why Philippines still fall behind. These days, an
accelerating pace of inflation, triggered in large part by the government’s imposition of new taxes on
products and services, can only be expected to hit the poor most and investors tend to walk away
because of that. They see it as an opening for potential loss.

In the Philippines, there are factors explain why investment does not grow at the pace of GDP:

First, the capital-intensive private sector does not find it convenient- as it expects little returns on
each dollar it spends - to expand investment at the economy’s fast pace. The public sector does not
invest enough to provide incentives for private investment. If there is no road, and the supply of
electricity is spotty, why should you invest to open a business?

Another is the fast-growing businesses in the service sector - electronics assembly, voice-based
business process outsourcing, and information technology - do not need to increase their investment
at GDP growth rates to enjoy fast-rising profits. It’s the nature of the business: it needs little capital
and lots of skilled labor.