Asian Studies Commons^™

Exporting Expertise: The Singapore Experience In Vietnam, Caroline Yeoh, Siang Yeung Wong, Amrit Vaidyanath

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Infrastructure can be unreliable and administration subject to corruption in Asia’s rapidly emerging economies. This context presented Singapore with unique opportunities to export its ‘positive reputation’ to locations where these attributes are less certain. The strategic initiative is premised on the perception that Singapore’s good relations with multinationals, as well as ‘guanxi’, or connections, with Asian business networks, will give the industrial-township projects a marketing advantage. To complement the extensive literature on Singapore’s flagship projects in Indonesia and China, this paper takes a closer look at Singapore’s lesser-known project in Vietnam. Evidence from on-site surveys is presented. It finds that …

Integrating Business Opportunities In Contiguous Economies: Perspectives From Singapore's Gambit In Indonesia, Caroline Yeoh, Sang M Lee, W. Ra Jang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

From Efficiency-Driven To Innovation-Driven Economic Growth: Perspectives From Singapore, Kim Song Tan, Sock-Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

The Singapore economy is going through a period of major restructuring. Economic stagnation since the 1997 Asia financial crisis (except for a brief recovery in 1999) has called into question the continued relevance of many fundamental policies that had worked well in the past. In 2002, a high-level Economic Review Committee (ERC) was convened by the government to chart new directions for the economy. A common thread that ran through the committee’s various reports was a call to enhance the economy’s innovative capacity, with the aim of making Singapore an innovation hub in the region. The call reflects an increased …

What Has Luck Got To Do With Economic Development? An Interpretation Of Resurgent Asia's Growth Experience, Hing-Man Leung, Swee Liang Tan, Zhenlin Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper critically reexamines the belief, currently gathering strength in the literature, that economic development depends on good luck rather than on good policy, and that Prometheus is unchained by chance. While it is impossible to disprove the role of luck in growth, we argue that luck is endogenous, and good luck is a function of good policy. Luck favours those who strive. Again contrary to common belief, we show that resurgent Asian economies have endured more, not less, than their fair share of economic volatility. They learned their lessons by success and failures, and luck is endogenous through learning-by-investing.

Re-Examining Public Policy: A Case For Conditional Fees In Singapore?, Gary Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Conditional fee agreements are currently prohibited in Singapore. The Singapore courts still adhere to the public policy considerations expressed in the English common law which proscribe maintenance and champerty. However, the United Kingdom as well as Ontario (Canada) and Australia have recently ‘departed’ from the old system prohibiting conditional fee agreements. It is thus timely for Singapore to re-examine the public policy arguments against conditional fee agreements and inquire whether a conditional fee based system ought to be introduced. Apart from the above jurisdictions, lessons will also be drawn from the problems and issues faced by the US and the …

The Impact Of War And Wartime On Transition To Adulthood: Vietnam, 1940-1990, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

During the latter half of the 20th century, Vietnam experienced nearly continuous wars, including the Vietnam War (1965-1975). Wars afflicted young Vietnamese adults most and left profound imprints on the life course of those who survived. Based on the 1995 Vietnam Longitudinal Survey, my study uses the life course approach to document how war affects the timing and sequencing of early life course transitions for the Vietnamese growing up between the 1940s and the 1990s. The life course transitions examined include leaving school and entering labor force and first marriage and first birth. I study the impact of war by …

How To Be Chinese: Ethnic Chinese Experience A 'Reawakening' Of Their Chinese Identity, Chang Yau Hoon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The post-Suharto era is an exciting period for Chinese Indonesians and other minority ethnic groups in Indonesia. After over three decades of cultural and political repression, Chinese Indonesians are now being given the opportunity to express their identity. The re-emergence of Chinese religion, language, and press in Indonesia since the end of the New Order, has had a significant impact on the development of ethnic Chinese identity. The strongly anti-Chinese sentiment expressed in the May 1998 riots in Jakarta and elsewhere in Indonesia, including the looting of Chinese-owned shops and businesses and the racially-motivated rapes, drastically altered the position of …

Get The Smu Edge: Make A Difference [Advertisement], Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

Get the SMU edge, make a difference. Featuring Lim Kong Wee, Steven Miller, Darren Lim, Deborah Ong (PricewaterhouseCoopers), Tan Siang Leng.

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The Empirical Relationship Between Exchange Rates And Interest Rates In Post-Crisis Asia, Hwee Kwan Chow, Yoonbai Kim

Research Collection School Of Economics

In post-crisis Asia, all crisis-hit countries (except Malaysia) announced a shift from exchange rate based monetary policy framework to the explicit adoption of inflation targeting that uses interest rates as the key monetary policy operating instrument. In this study, we examine the empirical relationship between exchange rates and interest rates, and investigate how the dynamics between them have changed following the crisis. This is carried out by constructing a bivariate VAR-GARCH model for each of the four Asian crisis countries, namely Indonesia, Korea, Philippines and Thailand. The findings suggest these countries do not use interest rate policy more actively to …

Trade, Capital Accumulation And Structural Unemployment: An Empirical Study Of The Singapore Economy, Hiau Looi Kee, Hian Teck Hoon

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies the factors responsible for the secular decline of Singapore’s unemployment rate over the period 1966-2000 in an environment of low and stable inflation rates. We introduce wage bargaining and unions into a specific-factors, two-sector economy with an export sector and a non-tradable sector to obtain an endogenous natural unemployment rate. Increases in the relative export price and capital stock in the export sector are predicted to reduce structural unemployment. These hypotheses could not be rejected based on structural estimations and co-integration regressions. Empirically, capital accumulation in the export sector explains most of the decline in Singapore’s unemployment …

Road Congestion Pricing In Singapore: 1975-2003, Sock-Yong Phang, Rex S. Toh

Research Collection School Of Economics

Facing traffic congestion in the Central Business District and enormous demands on scarce land resources by the growing number of motor vehicles, Singapore, a small island city-state the size of Seattle, embarked on a bold decision to reduce road congestion by implementing the famous Area Licensing Scheme in 1975. This was a manual system of tolls for multiple entries into the Restricted Zone. While achieving the intended effect of cutting down on the volume of vehicular traffic in the Restricted Zone, the authors (and others) found that the problem of congestion had merely shifted in time and place. Many changes …

Effects Of Board Structure On Firm Performance: A Comparison Of Japan And Australia, Ingrid Bonn, Toru Yoshikawa, Phillip H. Phan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article compares the effects of board size, proportion of female directors, proportion of outside directors and average age of directors on firm performance in Japanese and Australian firms. We found that board size and age of directors were negatively associated with the performance of Japanese firms. For Australian firms, outsider ratio and female director ratio were positively associated with performance.

Entry Mode And Performance In A Transitional Economy: A Framework For Foreign-Invested Enterprises In China, Howard Davies, Jin K. Han, Namwoon Kim, Jae H. Pae

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A conceptual framework is developed, bringing together entry mode, the influence of state officials, and the adoption of a customer-driven orientation in order to explain the performance of foreign-invested firms in a transitional economy. The model is tested on a sample of firms in China across eight provinces and cities, spread across the relatively developed South Coast, the Central Belt formed by Shanghai and the Yangzi basin and the less-developed North and West. We find that the decision to enter through a joint venture reduces the customer focus of the enterprise. Contrary to expectation, however, we find no positive relationship …

Why Is China So Competitive? Measuring And Explaining China's Competitiveness, F. Gerard Adams, Byron Gangnes, Yochanan Shachmurove

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper evaluates factors responsible for the competitiveness of China in the world economy and relative to its East Asian rivals. China has been highly successful in capturing world export markets. Chinese competitiveness is not just a matter of an undervalued exchange and extremely low labor costs. It reflects primarily the coincidence of favorable cost conditions with improvements in China’s ability to produce products that meet world market specifications. These improvements are closely related to foreign participation in China’s economy through foreign direct investment and joint venture enterprises.

Diasporic Tycoons, Outlaw States And Beijing Bastards: The Contingent Politics Of Greater China, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

National Insecurities: Humiliation, Salvation And Chinese Nationalism, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

While I was researching the South China Sea disputes between China, Vietnam, and the Philippines, I came upon an unlikely refer ence. In an otherwise hard-nosed analysis of the issue, a noted Chi nese expert cited a book called the Atlas of Shame. This odd juxta position of security studies, territoriality, and emotion piqued my interest, and I asked a friend in Beijing to track down this curious book. Once I got a copy of the Atlas of the Century of National Humili ation in Modern China, the correct title, I was fascinated by what seemed to be a unique …

Group Taxation: Ifa Singapore Branch Report, Cecil Duncan Macrae

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

Peace, Reunification, Democracy And Cross-Strait Relations, Zhaohui Hong, Yi Sun

Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies

No abstract provided.

The Japanese Biological And Chemical Warfare Program In China, 1932-1945, Beata Marzena Wilk

Theses

No abstract provided.

Berita Volume Xxviii, Number 2 (2004), Ronald Provencher

Berita

Table of Contents

Editor's Note... 1

Remembrance: James J. Puthucheary...1

Periodicals... 3

Books... 9

Amnesty International... 12

Distinguished Speaker... 12

Call for Papers... 12

Prospectus... 12

Research & Production Staff... 12

Berita Volume Xxviii, Number 1 (2004), Ronald Provencher

Berita

Table of Contents

Editor's Note... 1

Letters & Commentaries... 1

Periodicals... 2

Call for Papers... 7

Books... 8

Film & Video... 11

Annual Meeting... 11

A letter from the Chair... 12

Prospectus... 12

Berita Volume Xxviii, Number 4 (2004), Ronald Provencher

Berita

Table of Contents

Editor's Note... 1

Periodicals... 1

Books... 10

Amnesty International... 11

Professional Positions... 13

Calls for Papers/Conferences... 14

Prospectus... 14

Research & Production Staff... 14

Berita Volume Xxviii, Number 3 (2004), Ronald Provencher

Berita

Table of Contents

Periodicals... 1

Books... 7

Amnesty International... 9

Call for Papers/Conferences... 10

Prospectus... 10

Research & Production Staff... 10

Modernization And Divorce In Japan, Motonobu Mukai

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Divorce rates in Japan have increased since the mid-1960s, and even more rapidly since the 1990s. Divorce rates decreased throughout the period of industrialization, although modernization theory has argued that economic development brings pervasive cultural changes (including higher divorce rates). However, values regarding family are also influenced by the persistence of traditional values. Before WWII in Japan, a decreasing divorce rate was influenced by political ideology, which deliberately intended to change traditional ways of marriage and divorce. After WWII, however, this ideology diminished, and material affluence has led to an individualistic view that in turn has led to higher divorce …

Singapore Management University Report To Stakeholders 2004 - 2005, Singapore Management University

Report to Stakeholders

As the Singapore Management University moves into the Singapore centre, a whole new interchange between education and city takes hold in this revitalised urban environment. Bridging the scholastic origins of Bras Basah with the promise of the new millennium, SMU is at the centre of a new and dynamic educational hub where foundations are being readapted and the future redefined. Every facet of the SMU experience – academic programmes and research, faculty and staff enterprise, student activity and exploration – embraces the University’s passion for creativity, personal interchange and bold challenge.

Land Reform In Vietnamese Literature, Montira Rato

Asian Review

Even now, Vietnamese historians are reluctant to criticize the land reform campaign of the mid 1950s. However, four novels published between 1988 and 1992 seem determined to locate this traumatic event in the collective social memory. All four are partly based on personal experience, but have different perspectives. One from the viewpoint of a cadre records the damage to the social fabric but blames it on the stupidity of the peasants, and sees all those involved as pawns of history. The second, written from the viewpoint of a landlord, uses irony to examine the lack of justice and morality in …

The Chinese Community In Bangkok During The Second Half Of The Nineteenth Century, Piyanart Bunnag

Asian Review

When treaties were made with Western nations, starting with the Bowring Treaty in 1855, more Chinese migrated to Siam. They began to play a greater role in the economy, particularly as middlemen between Western traders and local citizens, but also in other roles in the export-oriented economy such as compradors, pawnbrokers, retailers, wholesalers, bankers, and owners of such enterprises as printing houses and factories. Some worked as common laborers at the docks, factories, and rice mills. During the second half of the nineteenth century, business expanded along new roads, causing environmental changes, crowding, congestion, disorder, and pollution. Fires became common, …

The Concept Of "Development" And The Thai Government's Policies To Develop The Northeast, 1951-1966, Somsri Chaiwanichaya

Asian Review

After World War II, modernization theory was developed and became a dominant idea, employed by the United States to oppose communism and expand capitalism. The Thai and US governments saw the importance of developing the Northeast region of Thailand, because of both the region's "natural disadvantages" and its strategic location bordering Laos, Kampuchea, and Vietnam. The Phibun government (1951- 1957) launched programs to develop water resources and diversify crops, but initially had no overall plan. During the Sarit regime (1957—1966), a more structured plan emerged under the concept of "development for national security."

The Proactive Cosmopolitan Foreign Policy Of The European Union: The Burmese Issue Reconsidered, Piyapat Bunnag

Asian Review

The European Union has turned away from the traditional notion of power politics and moved to assert instead soft civilian or normative power to influence the world. This paper examines the Union's foreign policy towards Myanmar looking from a constructivist perspective, focusing on the objectives of human rights and democratization. The paper sketches the constructivist approach to foreign policy, and then examines the evolution of the Union's foreign policy about human rights and democratization. Then this norm-based foreign policy and its effect on the Union's relations, and conflicts, with ASEAN over Burmese alleged human rights abuses will then come to …

Introduction, Piyanart Bunnag

Asian Review

No abstract provided.