AEC 16, SIU-HBS ASEAN Scenario Workshop in Bangkok

Last Thursday, October 15, I was in Bangkok, Thailand, to participate in the "ASEAN Scenario Workshop", organized by the Siam Intelligence Unit (SIU) and the Heinrich Boll Stiftung (HBS).

I brought copies of these three papers that I wrote.

 (1) Taxation, Regulation, Trade and Rule of law: Reform Challenges for the Philippines and the ASEAN, published by Stratbase Research Inst. (SRI), now Albert del Rosario (ADR) Institute;

(2) The Case for Unilateral Trade Liberalisation in ASEAN, published by the South East Asia Network for Development (SEANET), Malaysia; 

http://seanetwork.asia/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/SEANET_issue-2_FINAL.pdf

(3) ASEAN Economic Scenario 2016-2020: Preliminary Projections, published by Alas Oplas and Co. CPAs (my sister's auditing firm).

About 25 participants came, excluding staff  of SIUand HBS, mostly from Thailand, then from SG, MY, ID, PH (me), Myanmar, Bangladesh. Plus participants from non-ASEAN countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Australia, an officer from the Australian embassy in Bangkok.

Among the activities were filling the issues to each of  these STEEP processes.

I shared my hypothesis that Europe and N. America will be suffering from more bureaucracies, more taxes trying to sustain their costly welfare system, and many companies there will be jumping ship and ASEAN economies will be among their considerations to do business.

Nice venue, C-ASEAN building, 10th floor. We were in one of the function rooms.

For years, it was my shortest foreign trip. Bangkok airport immigration stamped my entry Oct 14, exit Oct. 15. I arrived at my hotel almost 1am, checked out 9am, only 8 hours stay incl. breakfast, straight to the workshop, dinner, back to the airport.

Thanks to Kan Yuenyong, SIU Exec. Director, for inviting me. Here, he was giving the intro about the workshop.

Photo credit, Thongchai Vachirarojpisan, for the 1st and 4th (me speaking) photos. The rest are from my camera phone.

------------

See also:
AEC 12: Workshop on Trade Liberalization at the APF 2015, Kuala Lumpur, April 27, 2015 
AEC 13, SEANET Website, AFAS in Financial Services, June 18, 2015 
AEC 14, SEANET-ABAC Meeting, IDEAS-OBG Partnership, June 24, 2015 
AEC 15, ADR Institute discussion on trade and investments,July 16, 2015 
Free Trade 55, TPP Agreement, finally, October 06, 2015