ASEAN Cooperation:

The Way Forward

by:
Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III
ASEAN Cooperation: The
Way Forward
Presentation for the 15th INFID Conference, Jakarta
October 27-28, 2008

Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III

 The Need for Regional
Cooperation
• Public Goods (and Public Bads) are
present at different levels--local,
national, regional, international.
• Public Goods (and Public Bads) have
positive (and negative) externalities that
require state intervention or regulation.
 The Need for Regional
Cooperation
• Regional institutions are necessary to
address public goods (and bads) that move
from one border to another in a specific
region.
• Regional cooperation is a way to address
coordination or collective action problems
(e.g., 1997 Asian financial crisis,
environmental disasters, spread of infectious
diseases, border disputes, piracy and
smuggling).
 The Need for Regional
Cooperation
• Regional cooperation and institutions reduce
transaction costs.
• Examples of transaction costs: reduction of
tariffs, harmonization of rules and standards,
reduction of travel-related costs (visa fee,
foreign exchange transactions).
• Regional cooperation facilitates movement of
people and trade; promotes spread of ideas
and cultural exchange.
 The Need for Regional
Cooperation
• Regional cooperation has likewise become
an instrument of economic competition.
• Forming a regional bloc is a way to enlarge
and consolidate markets as well as protect
such markets from the penetration of
competitors.
• In the case of ASEAN, its consolidation is
necessary to have a better leverage vis-à-vis
neighboring countries, which are economic
giants, namely Japan, Korea, and China.
The Question is: What Kind of
Regional Cooperation?
• The most advanced form of cooperation
is economic and political integration
(similar to the European Union).
• ASEAN is gradually moving towards
tighter integration (e.g.; ASEAN free
trade, ASEAN Charter).
• It is arguably an irreversible process.
 Issues and Challenges
• Unevenness of ASEAN countries. (On
economic development, compare Burma to
Singapore!)
• The competition within ASEAN: members
compete with one another, including the
resort to beggar thy neighbor practices.
• The weakness (or immaturity) of political
institutions.
 Weak Institutions (National
and Supra-national)
• The lack of transparency.
• The unclear accountability of ASEAN
bureaucrats.
• The lack of citizens’ participation, especially
in relation to the regional process.
• Many ASEAN states are dictatorships or one-
party states.
• National parliaments and national citizens, for
example, are in the main ignorant of the
ASEAN Charter.