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Asia is home not only to the most populous nations around
the world like China, India and
Indonesia, but also to the fast-growing economies, big and small.
Opening up to global trade is among the most useful policies that governments
of these more fortunate economies have undertaken.
Below is a short summary of the human resources –
producers and consumers, sellers and buyers, entrepreneurs and workers – of
selected Asian economies. For brevity purpose, only the big population (above
20 million) economies are included in this table. Gross domestic product (GDP)
is expressed in Purchasing power parity (PPP) valuation to levelise the pricing
and valuation of similar goods and services across countries.
Population, GDP
Size and Exports of Selected South-East and East Asia Economies
Sources:
a. Population and GDP sizes, IMF, World Economic
Outlook 2014, Database
b. Merchandise exports, ADB, Key Indicators of Asia
and the Pacific 2014.
The columns on Multiple are not part of the tables from
these sources; they were only added in this paper.
While most of the praise in the world is directed to East
Asian economies, those in South Asia, in particular India and Bangladesh, are
also showing renewed dynamism. There is a need to keep that momentum and for
others, to pick up speed and momentum.
Opening up to more global trade, reducing restrictions
and regulations in exports and imports, is among the most important policy
reforms that a country can take. And it is not only more exports but more
imports as well. When local producers have more access to better machines and
newer technologies from abroad at more competitive or affordable prices, that
alone quickly improves their productivity. And it translates to business
expansion and more job creation.
Multilateral trade negotiations through the World Trade
Organization (WTO) have become too time-consuming and bureaucratic that free
trade was minimally moving through this route. The easier route taken by many
countries is through bilateral and regional free trade agreements or free trade
areas (FTAs).
An even faster route is via unilateral trade
liberalization, a country simply opens up the border to global trade, tariff is
zero, shipment of goods is given quick clearance. Only goods that can harm
public health like poisonous substances, suspicious drugs and medicines, guns
and bombs, are strictly regulated. Few countries have already taken this route,
like Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and Chile.
Other countries in East Asia are also doing soft or
mini-unilateral liberalization, but not to the point of having zero tariff yet.
They retain the tariff but at very low rates, like among member-countries of
the ASEAN, average of 1-3 percent. When the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)
materializes by end-2015, the tariff should become zero.
There is an exciting international conference to be held
in Kathmandu that will tackle free trade
and economic liberalization next year, the “Asia Liberty Forum” on January 8-10,
2015. The event is jointly sponsored by
the Asia Centre for Enterprise (ACE), Samriddhi Prosperity Foundation, and the Friedrich
Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF). The main goal of the conference is to
publicly celebrate liberty and economic
freedom in Asia, so scholars and leaders from Asia and their friends from the
US and Europe are coming and help advancing liberty and markets in the
continent.
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See also:
Business 360 16: ASEAN Economic Community 2016, March 21, 2014
Business 360 16: ASEAN Economic Community 2016, March 21, 2014
Business 360 17: Electricity and GDP Growth, April 15, 2014
Business 360 18: Innovation, Inequality and Inclusive Growth, August 25, 2014
Business 360 19: Investments and Inequality in Asia, October 15, 2014
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