Sithanonxay Suvannaphakdy (PhD) is an economist with more than seven years research experience in regional economic integration, economic development, and public administration. His career has focused on research and project management in trade, economic development and sustainable development programs. These cover multiple scales including project, program, national and regional scales. He works extensively with the private sector, public sector, bilateral development agencies and multilateral financial institutions.
Since January 2020, he has served as a Lead Researcher at the ASEAN Studies Centre, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, where he undertakes policy-oriented research on ASEAN’s economic integration with particular focus on ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).
Half of the ASEAN members have contained the Covid-19 pandemic, but not Indonesia and The Philippines. Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand are dealing with new waves of infection. For countries that have controlled local transmission of the virus, a V-shaped recovery looks likely. For the others, the possibility of a delayed or W-shaped recovery increases the longer reintroduced containment measures stay in place.
A bid to boost market access for agri-food trade in ASEAN is in jeopardy. Non-tariff measures (NTMs) – policy measures other than tariffs that can potentially hinder trade – have emerged as one of the key obstacles to agri-food trade, namely fisheries and agro-based products. NTMs increase trade costs for producers, importers and exporters through information, compliance and procedural...
The development of ASEAN Single Window in the past 15 years has demonstrated the importance of digitalizing trade procedures to reduce trade costs and boost competitiveness in ASEAN. The enlargement of the ASEAN Single Window to include the grouping’s dialogue partners will reduce trade costs further.
The formation of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a lengthy process. Signing the RCEP in 2020 is not impossible although it can be undermined by the persistent spread of Covid-19.
