This paper evaluates the implementation of the 2010–2015 ASEAN Strategic Action Plan for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Development and the 2004–2009 ASEAN Policy Blueprint for SME Development. The initial interviews and survey results yielded low average effectiveness scores...

The paper aims to identify the facilitating and deterring factors affecting the implementation of the ASEAN mutual recognition arrangements (MRAs) in professional services encompassing engineering, nursing, architecture, surveying, medical, dental practice, and accountancy. Overall, the progress...

The paper aims to assess and determine the capacity-building needs required to liberalize trade in services in the Philippines. Through the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services, the Philippines has committed to liberalize various sectors including air transport, maritime transport,...

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint outlines the plan of countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to unify into a single market and production base. A priority focus for integration is the enhancement of trade among ASEAN member-countries and long-term...

The paper examines the state of investment liberalization and facilitation in the Philippines and suggests policy measures to enable the country to comply with its ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015 commitments. Based on interviews and surveys, the results indicated that investment incentives,...

This paper is part of the Philippine study for the Mid-Term Review (MTR) of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint, a project of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA). A milestone in ASEAN economic cooperation is the Cebu Declaration on the Acceleration of the...

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint envisions the transformation of the ASEAN region into a single market and production base through the facilitation of the free flow of goods and services. With tariffs declining to near-zero levels, nontariff barriers are increasingly the focus of...

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint targets an ASEAN single market in 2015. This is an ambitious reform agenda that seeks to ensure the free flow of services, investment, and skilled labor, along with the free flow of goods and the freer flow of capital, in the ASEAN region. For...

This paper presents a new model for constructing poverty lines. The model uses consumer theory to construct both food and nonfood poverty thresholds. Although one cannot completely eliminate the value judgments inherent in the construction of poverty thresholds, this model helps to make the ad...