ASIAN REGIONALISM

I. INTRODUCTION
A. Differentiate REGIONALISM and GLOBALIZATION
 Regionalism is the process of the integration of countries within the
regions that divides into segments. Decentralized regions (power is
distributed) are formed in which it focuses on its own growth.
 Globalization refers to when the countries world-wide come together and
create an action when it comes to global trade of goods, investments,
world views and culture.
 Regional economic blocs are present due to the impact of
globalization worldwide. Economic blocs help by reducing or
eliminating the unnecessary trade barriers that is present in other
member states, this inturn creates a free movement of goods, services,
labor and capital. States then prosper in trade and globalization with
the aid of free trade areas which provides larger market and
specialization.

B. Asia and Its Regional Organization

 ASIAN REGIONALISM

Asian regionalism is the product of economic interaction, not political

planning.

In the early stages of Asia’s economic takeoff, regional integration

proceeded slowly. East Asian economies, in particular, focused on exporting to
developed country markets rather than selling to each other.

Now, though, Asian economies are becoming closely intertwined. This is

not because the region’s development strategy has changed; it remains
predominantly nondiscriminatory and outward-oriented.

Asia is at the center of the development of such production networks

because it has efficient transport and communication links, as well as policies
geared to supporting trade. As these new production patterns tie Asian
economies closer together, they also boost the international competitiveness of
the region’s firms.

Against this background, the financial crisis that swept through Asia in
1997/98, referred to simply as “the crisis”—put the region’s interdependence into
harsh new focus.

Emerging Asian economies that had opened up their financial markets:

  Indonesia,
 the Republic of Korea,
 Malaysia,
 the Philippines, and
 Thailand
Asia emerged with a greater appreciation of its shared interests and the value of
regional cooperation. Since the crisis, Asia has become not only more integrated, but
also more willing to pull together.

 ASEAN

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations  

Members:

  Indonesia, 
 Thailand, 
 Singapore, 
 Malaysia, 
 Philippines, 
 Vietnam, 
 Cambodia,
  Brunei, 
 Myanmar (Burma),
 Laos
II. BODY
A. Factors Leading to Greater Integration of the Asian Regionalism
1) Economic
 Regionalism is a relatively new aspect of Asia’s rise. Asia’s economies
are increasingly connected through trade, financial transactions, direct
investment, technology, labor and tourist flows, and other economic
relationships. Asian regionalism is the product of economic interaction,
not political planning. As a result of the successful, outward oriented
growth strategies, Asian economies have grown not only richer, but also
closer together.
Problem:
The 1997/98 Crisis: according to Britannica, “The 1997–98 Asian
financial crisis began in Thailand and then quickly spread to neighboring economies. It
began as a currency crisis when Bangkok unpegged the Thai baht from the U.S. dollar,
setting off a series of currency devaluations and massive flights of capital.”
Solution:
The Asian financial crisis was ultimately solved by the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), which provided the loans necessary to stabilize the troubled Asian
economies. In late 1997, the organization had committed more than $110 billion in
short-term loans to Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea to help stabilize the
economies. This was more than double IMF's largest loan ever.

 The 1997/98 financial crisis, in particular, was an important catalyst for

this new regionalism and gave rise to a range of new initiatives.
 Asia’s economic rise is unprecedented. The region is home to over half
the world’s population, produces three tenths of global output (in terms
of purchasing power), and consistently records the world’s highest
economic growth rates. The Asian “miracle” (World Bank 1993) did not
end with the 1997/98 financial crisis a decade ago; for some countries, it
marked the beginning of renewed acceleration. The question is no longer
whether Asia will be central to the 21st century economy, but rather how
it will exercise its prominent role and how its dependence on the rest of
the world has decreased.
2) Political
 Asian regionalism is the product of the interaction between Asian
countries and has contributed to a lot of factors and vice versa -
one of which is in the field of politics. As we know, Asian
regionalism has benefited the trade and economy around the
Asian borders. It has flourished the growth of transactions, labor
and other economic relationships. In relation to this, one of the
major ______ that impacts the economic development are the
different political factors or government enforced policies. These
policies are detrimental to the growth or decline of a countries
economic status. For example, political stability and economic
development are interrelated because in a smaller scale, it defines
whether or not businesses will thrive or will be at risk from
establishing. Another is political management which refers to how
strong or weak a government enforce and maintain national and
international policies or laws. How a government exercise their
power to enforce laws that regulates the safe trade of businesses
ensures safe transactions and also protects rights and liberties of
the people. Overall, politics can change the path of a countries
economic status and can affect the relationship of neighboring
countries as a whole in terms of trade and industry.
 Problem:
Although politics have contributed to the economic growth of many Asian
countries, it also has several issues that affects the development of an economy. One of
the most common problem is corruption which is present in almost all certain
government agencies of some countries. Such corruption pertains to a way of running a
government which uses a dishonest, illegal and unethical practices, which includes
selfish politicians that bribe local companies for materials, and/or paying their
competitors to prevent from competing against them. This ‘competition issue’ then
prevents an increase in economic development because, one, is that there are no other
available choices in the market for people to choose from. Second, is that stocks in the
market can become overly expensive due to high demand but low supply of products.

Another issue that affects Asian regionalism is the political risk in some
countries, which is a risk of losing money due to political changes or unstable
governments, economies, or threatened nations. This prevents foreign direct
investment (FDI) and deprives developing countries of the capital that they need.
This affects Asian regionalism because there are some investors that are discouraged to
invest in host markets because of the concerns of rise on political risk. Hence, the
countries’ economic status could be affected in serious ways.

Solution:

Corruption in a society is so complex that it might be hard to fully eradicate this

problem. However, simple and realistic solutions can be a step to minimize and
hopefully prevent corruption. One thing that we can do is to educate our people on how
corruption -even in small areas, creates a ripple effect that puts a countries economic
status in crisis. For a bigger impact, there are anti-corruption agenda that are expanded
through a series of actions. Some actions include activities like enabling and expanding
the use of technologies to fight corruption. Advances in technology have led to
unprecedented, rapid access to vast amounts of data on societies, the economy and can
be key tools to fight against corruption.

Additionally, for the problem concerning political risk we cannot also fully give a
concrete solution that erases this problem. But we can formulate ways to minimize and
manage potential political risks. First of all, we must identify the risk and the factors
regarding it. Knowing these things can help us plan on what implementations we can do
to prevent the build-up of such risks and probably avoid it in the future.
 3) Social
4) Security
 The main concern is national security; the regional solution becomes
military alliances. For functionalism, security threats come from
military, political, economic and environmental problems which, if not
solved, may catalyze war. The solution is regional cooperation, not seen
as an end in it but rather as a source of renewable forms of cooperation.
The cooperative commitment of regional states to find solutions to
concrete problems leads to socialization and integration in the region.

PROBLEM:

MARAWI SEIGE in 2017

SOLUTION:
In 2017, an ASEAN-China summit was held in the Philippines which
discussed security threats such as terrorism, North Korea, and maritime issues.
They discussed about the 5-month Marawi siege brought upon the ISIS group.
Leaders from neighboring countries, especially Indonesia and Malaysia offered
to join forces and share their resources to strengthen their security.
 Regional cooperation can eliminate or diminish security threats

III. CONCLUSION/SUMMARY