This publication explores how international trade is promoting economic empowerment through the increased participation of women and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. It highlights the roles of services and digital connectivity in facilitating diversification and inclusive economic transformation. The report examines recent trends in aid for trade in Asia and the Pacific and how it can do more to boost inclusive growth.
The Asian Development Bank, under the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation program, is helping Maldives implement a robust domestic and regional trade system. This integrated trade network facilitates seamless movement of goods and documents, across organizational and national boundaries, and will vastly improve the business environment and overall economic activity. This publication outlines key blockchain use cases recommended for implementation in Maldives for trade facilitation. A feasibility study conducted from April to July 2019 established the use cases of blockchain technology to facilitate cross-border trade and improve operational performance of domestic trade processes in Maldives.
Economic ties between Asia and Latin America are growing as a part of a global shift toward more South–South cooperation. Yet trade costs remain high, which may impede future interregional trade and integration. Furthermore, an emerging trans-Pacific trade architecture based on free trade agreements (FTAs) carries risks of a noodle bowl effect. This book examines new frontiers in Asia–Latin America integration through interregional comparative studies in three key areas: trade facilitation, logistics, and infrastructure; production networks, supply chains, and small and medium-sized enterprises; and FTAs. The chapters contributed by Asian, Latin American, and international experts provide new insights on regional integration, impediments, and policy issues.
The balancing of competing interests and goals will have momentous consequences for Japan—and the United States—in their quest for economic growth, social harmony, and international clout. Japan and the United States face difficult choices in charting their paths ahead as trading nations. Tokyo has long aimed for greater decisiveness, which would allow it to move away from a fragmented policymaking system favoring the status quo in order to enable meaningful internal reforms and acquire a larger voice in trade negotiations. And Washington confronts an uphill battle in rebuilding a fraying domestic consensus in favor of internationalism essential to sustain its leadership role as a champion of free trade. In Dilemmas of a Trading Nation, Mireya Solís describes how accomplishing these tasks will require the skillful navigation of vexing tradeoffs that emerge from pursuing desirable, but to some extent contradictory goals: economic competitiveness, social legitimacy, and political viability. Trade policy has catapulted front and center to the national conversations taking place in each country about their desired future direction—economic renewal, a relaunched social compact, and projected international influence. Dilemmas of a Trading Nation underscores the global consequences of these defining trade dilemmas for Japan and the United States: decisiveness, reform, internationalism. At stake is the ability of these leading economies to upgrade international economic rules and create incentives for emerging economies to converge toward these higher standards. At play is the reaffirmation of a rules-based international order that has been a source of postwar stability, the deepening of a bilateral alliance at the core of America's diplomacy in Asia, and the ability to reassure friends and rivals of the staying power of the United States. In the execution of trade policy today, we are witnessing an international leadership test dominated by domestic governance dilemmas.
Remittances are considered a lifeline of developing countries and are especially vital for migrants and their families. Digital data technology can help alleviate many of the “pain-points” in the remittances industry. For example, it can significantly enhance the convenience, speed, security, and affordability of sending and receiving remittances. This report discusses the importance of remittances in Asia and the Pacific, the key challenges faced by the industry, and the impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19 pandemic. It also includes country case studies that demonstrate the benefits of digitization and makes recommendations on how the digitization of remittances across the region can be further advanced.
This book presents an analysis of the state of trade facilitation in member countries of the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) program. It includes country-level studies and identifies four common trade facilitation priorities among SASEC countries: (i) implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and other international conventions; (ii) logistics and infrastructure development, and related regulatory reforms; (iii) coordinated border management; and (iv) institutions and capacity building.
This book is a history of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), a multilateral development bank established 50 years ago to serve Asia and the Pacific. Focusing on the region’s economic development, the evolution of the international development agenda, and the story of ADB itself, this book raises several key questions: What are the outstanding features of regional development to which ADB had to respond? How has the bank grown and evolved in changing circumstances? How did ADB’s successive leaders promote reforms while preserving continuity with the efforts of their predecessors? ADB has played an important role in the transformation of Asia and the Pacific the past 50 years. As ADB continues to evolve and adapt to the region’s changing development landscape, the experiences highlighted in this book can provide valuable insight on how best to serve Asia and the Pacific in the future.
This edition focuses on trade connectivity, which is critical for inclusiveness and sustainable development. Physical connectivity enables the movement of goods and services to local, regional and global markets.
