Analysis of green total factor productivity trend and its determinants for the countries along silk roads

In coping with increasing energy consumption and the consequential environmental pollution, green development is becoming an important part of social development. Since the inauguration of China’s Silk Road Economic Belt Initiative (BRI), economic cooperation between China and other countries along BRI has seen much growth. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the levels of green total factor productivity (GTFP) of the countries in the Silk Roads Economic Belt (B&R) and examine how these levels vary spatially and evolve temporally. In this paper, a panel regression analysis with DEA windows is used to study the spatiotemporal trends of the levels of GTFP. The results are: (1) The B&R countries have seen an increase in their overall levels of GTFP over time; (2) There are regional differences in the levels of GTFP, with higher efficiency in Western Asia and Central and Eastern Europe, and lower efficiency in Southeast and Central Asia; (3) The analysis of GTFP for countries in these regions shows that the efficiencies of most countries have been improving, with that of only a few countries have been decreasing; (4) By using regression analysis, we find that variables such as import, export, industrial structure, and urban affect the B&R countries with growing GTFP.     

Ever-transient FDI and ever-polarizing regional development: Revisiting conventional theories of regional development in the context of China,Southeast and South Asia

In this new age of globalization, regions attempt to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in order to achieve regionally balanced development. We revisit existing theories of regional development and FDI by analyzing recent data sets on FDI, employment, and trade in China, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. Using Chinese provincial data in 2004, 2008, and 2013 and applying panel estimations, our econometric results demonstrate that FDI remarkably influenced the concentration of employment in manufacturing, financial, and business services industries within the three Chinese macro-regions. We also find that FDI is ever transient, always moving away from high-cost to low-cost production bases across different regions. This transient nature of FDI is spatially selective and biased, and not able to generate the trickle-down effects to other neighboring regions. That is why FDI recently moved from China to Southeast and South Asia rather than from its coastal to inland regions. Furthermore, we show that this nature of FDI generally leads to polarization development for regions. As a synthesis or extension of the existing theories, we propose a leapfrog polarization pattern and strategy for vast developing countries in considering their regional development strategies.     

Negotiating China's rise: The dynamics of Chinese business associations and the Belt and Road Initiative in Brunei Darussalam

With an increasingly assertive China and the intensifying influence of the Sinocentre, Chinese overseas who have access to Chineseness can exercise their agentic power in using their cultural capital for economic gains. Beijing has recognised the potential for diasporic Chinese entrepreneurs to contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) given their influence in Southeast Asia's economy. Correspondingly, these entrepreneurs hail the BRI as a strategic opportunity for them to turn their cultural capital into fiscal capital. Considering the increased global connectivity and new Chinese migration geographies led by the BRI, this article examines the case of Chinese business associations in Brunei Darussalam. The heterogenous responses of these ethnic Chinese and their associations to China and the BRI attest to the multiplicity and contestations of Chineseness based on different migration histories and sentiments to their ancestral land. We focus on the dynamics between the old Chinese Bruneian business elites and the more recent Chinese business migrants from Malaysia and China. An investigation of the cultural and economic politics within the Chinese Bruneian business community will provide insights into the modality of Chineseness as an economic asset that can be tactically used by diasporic Chinese entrepreneurs to maintain their social position and to respond to China's economic rise.     

Beyond as bridges: The role of the Chinese voluntary associations in Chinese outward foreign direct investment in Southeast Asia

With the implementation of the ‘Go Global’ strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese enterprises have gradually grown into the main force of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) around the world. Overseas and domestic Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) have actively promoted inward foreign direct investment in China, while their role in helping Chinese enterprises invest abroad has not been fully revealed. To address this lacuna, we explore the role of CVAs in the foreign direct investment of Chinese enterprises in Southeast Asia and the heterogeneity of their roles based on different types of associations. Our main argument is that CVAs play an intermediary role in shaping Chinese OFDI by facilitating bilateral information exchange and resource matching to enable enterprises' global–local interactions. This research contributes to verifying the impact of CVAs on Chinese enterprises' OFDI and providing implications for both host countries to attract investment and multinational enterprises from China and other developing countries to achieve internationalisation.     

Luxury seafood consumption in China and the intensification of coastal livelihoods in Southeast Asia: The live reef fish for food trade in Balabac,Philippines

An important contemporary driver of livelihood change in coastal Southeast Asia is the growing demand for luxury seafood in China. Based on fieldwork in the municipality of Balabac in Palawan province, western Philippines, this paper takes stock of this trend, and investigates the implications of the relationship between Chinese patterns of luxury seafood consumption and the intensification of coastal livelihoods in Southeast Asia. The paper focuses mostly on the trade in live reef fish, with reference also to sea cucumber and shark fin. In the light of recent discussions of social and environmental change in Southeast Asia, the paper addresses how the intensification of coastal livelihoods has manifested in important trends, including an increasing reliance on high‐value commodity fisheries such as the trade in luxury seafood. Important consequences of this intensification of coastal livelihoods include environmental degradation, and social change due to the development of broader trading networks. The paper argues that the live reef fish for food trade is an important contemporary livelihood that highlights the ways in which Chinese consumption is having diverse social and environmental consequences for source countries in Southeast Asia.     

Negotiating Routes and/or Roots: Heritagisation of nanyin in China and Singapore, 1970s to 2010s

Originated in southern China, nanyin (南音) is regarded as ‘the sound of motherland’ (乡音) performed and loved by the Hokkien dialect speakers in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and diasporic populations living in Southeast Asia. Having thrived in transnational spaces, nanyin is now celebrated as a shared heritage in China and Southeast Asian countries, such as Singapore. This paper explores the process of heritage-making, that is, the ways in which the art form and cultural practice of nanyin have been re-shaped and re-appropriated by the diasporic communities and the native place to articulate different understandings of the Chinese identity in their distinct nation-state frameworks. In this ambivalent entanglement, China has re-appropriated the diasporic history of nanyin to gain international recognition and build soft power through United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In Singapore, the Siong Leng Music Association has actively engaged in the heritage-making of nanyin, leading to the creation of a unique Singapore brand that speaks to hybridity and cosmopolitanism, in the same way as the re-construction of their Chinese identity. Examining the two processes of heritagisation of nanyin along the China-Singapore ‘heritage corridors’, the paper argues that the two ends are connected in important ways but always seek to maintain distance to articulate their own cultural representations at international stages. Thus, nanyin through a comparative perspective enables a critical examination of issues of centre versus periphery, authenticity, and hybridity in the Sinophone world.     

1961-2018年全球青豌豆生产时空变化及发展趋势

我国是全球最重要的青豌豆生产国和出口国,然而全球尺度的主要生产国青豌豆种植面积和产量的历史变化规律和发展趋势并不清楚,制约了我国青豌豆生产的可持续发展。基于1961-2018年全球青豌豆逐年的收获面积、总产量和单产等数据,利用一元线性回归模型以及优势指数等分析了1961-2018年全球青豌豆生产的时空变化特征。结果表明,全球青豌豆生产在1990年前后出现明显的时空变化规律,1961-1990年全球青豌豆生产集中在欧洲,其收获面积和总产量分别占全球的42.5%和41.5%。1990年之后,全球青豌豆生产重心逐步转移到亚洲,其收获面积和总产量分别占全球的71.1%和77.9%。与美国、英国和印度等主产国相比,我国在1990年之前优势指数较弱,但1990年后生产规模优势显著高于其他主产国,效率优势指数逐步缩小。尽管近年来我国青豌豆种植面积的增加带动全球青豌豆生产重心逐渐向亚洲转移,但相较于其他主产国,我国的生产效率并未呈现显著优势。因此,优化和调整我国的青豌豆种植布局,提高单产水平,对提升我国青豌豆的国际竞争力和可持续发展具有重要意义。     

Canada and the International System of Bank Headquarters Cities, 1968–1989

ABSTRACT This paper examines spatial-temporal trends in the international system of corporate banking centers. It is evident that the largest corporations locate their headquarters in a formal national decision-making hierarchy and that national and regional nodes within this hierarchy house the headquarters of major banks. Initially these banks link clients internally. However, as domestic corporations evolve into transnationals, banks follow their customers overseas and establish foreign headquarters. The results of the study indicate that, until 1975, American banking corporations and their financial centers dominated global banking. Since then other countries, most notably Japan and Germany, have successfully challenged this hegemony, while others like the United Kingdom and Canada have been in relative decline. The 1980s witnessed a new era of international coordination of the world's largest industrial countries. Canada, for example, opened its doors to international banking, joined the G-7, and presently is linked to the world's major banking centers.     

Dual-facing bridges and brokers: Diaspora politics and Chinese voluntary associations

This commentary introduces the term ‘dual facing’ to describe the way that Chinese voluntary associations orientate themselves as collectives situated between the ancestral land (China) and their countries of settlement. The commentary uses examples of Chinese voluntary associations in Singapore and Myanmar to reflect on China's longstanding presence and expanding reach in Southeast Asia, including through its diaspora engagement with the Chinese abroad. It argues that such associations are embedded not only in the nation-building efforts of their countries of settlement, but also the ancestral land. However, this dual-facing orientation also means that they can become embroiled in conflictual domestic and foreign politics at both ends, potentially jeopardising how they are otherwise seen as bridges and brokers by China and in the countries where have settled.     

Sustainable urbanization in Southeast Asia and beyond: Challenges of population growth,land use change,and environmental health

As economic growth centres, the Southeast Asian cities feature high population pressure, unsustainable land use, environmental degradation, and large ecological footprints. It is difficult to manage environmental health and basic services for urban dwellers, and ensure optimum flow of ecosystem services in the context of rapid, unplanned, and haphazard urbanization. These challenges are particularly multifaceted in the developing countries of Southeast Asian region. This study, based on secondary sources, adopted multidisciplinary lenses, such as geographical information systems, socio‐economic perspective, and sustainability science to examine the population situation, land use change pattern, and drivers of environmental degradation in the Southeast Asian cities as well as the Dhaka megacity, and brought forth a fresh perspective to look into contemporary urban ecosystems, population dynamics, environmental health, and sustainability. It also focused on identifying the commonalities among the cities under study to create a common understanding towards promoting collaborative urban development. This study shows that the urbanization process in the Southeast Asia region is taking place mostly in an unplanned and haphazard manner. With little concern for nature, life‐supporting ecological systems, and the environment, urban spatial growth continues unabated. The data surveyed and discussed in this paper shows that the current style of urbanization in Southeast Asia can best be called unsustainable. The findings also suggest that the general wellbeing and welfare of the current and future generations in Southeast Asian cities as well as in Dhaka is at risk. The paper recommends concerted efforts towards making the urbanization process sustainable, including better urban planning, policymaking, and international and regional cooperation.     

中国大米国际竞争力研究 ——基于同印度、巴基斯坦、泰国和越南的比较分析

稻谷是中国主要的粮食生产作物，具有较强的创造经济效益的能力。从联合国粮农组织和世界贸易组织的相关数据上来看，中国大米产量与中国大米的出口量存在着明显的不对称。笔者从研究国际竞争力的显示性指标出发，选择了亚洲最大的5个大米出口国作为研究对象，运用了国际市场占有率、贸易竞争指数、显示性比较优势指数、进出口价格比4个指标对中国大米的国际竞争力作了实证分析。结果表明，中国大米与印度、巴基斯坦、泰国和越南4国相比，不具有国际竞争力优势。     

全球水稻分子育种亲本材料在福建的稻瘟病抗性评价

本研究对来源于全球22个国家的130份分子育种亲本材料,在福建省上杭县茶地上自然鉴定其田间苗瘟、叶瘟和穗颈瘟发病率,旨在筛选出稻瘟病抗性亲本,丰富现有的水稻品种资源。供试的130份水稻亲本材料中,高抗（脉）、抗性（R）亲本分别都占全部鉴定材料的11．5％,说明稻瘟病抗性资源丰富。但不同国家或地区存在的抗源丰富程度不同,在东南亚或南亚一些国家的抗源比较丰富,中国、日本、韩国等东亚国家的抗性材料相对较少。     

In situ dynamics of Japanese electronic subsidiaries in ASEAN countries: Reflections from a development perspective

This paper contributes to the theory of subsidiary evolution in multinational corporations through utilising a value chain approach. It assesses the changing activities of the branches of Japanese electronics firms located in Southeast Asia (the ASEAN region) since the 1997–1998 financial crisis. In the paper, we argue that a modest development of Japanese subsidiaries has occurred in this region during the past 10 years or so. We connect models of subsidiary development to Michael Porter's value chain in the results of a set of interviews with 37 managers in the factories, sales offices and regional headquarters of Japanese subsidiary companies located in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. We show that decentralisation of management functions from Japan occurred in both primary and support activities of the value chain. However, corporate long‐term research and development did not disperse to Southeast Asia and is unlikely to in the near future. The article interprets these results and highlights the need for further research relating to the evolving geography of Japanese electronics multinational corporations and their subsidiaries in Southeast Asia.     

International healthcare worker migration in Asia Pacific: International policy responses

The growth of the international migration of health workers in recent decades has taken place in the context of the transnationalisation of healthcare provision as well as of governance and policy responses. This paper examines international policy responses to cross‐border health worker migration in the Asia Pacific region. These include multilateral (global and regional) and bilateral policy agreements, policy dialogue and programmes of action in relation to key issues of ethical recruitment, ‘circular’ migration and labour rights and key themes of health workforce planning and management. The paper brings original new analysis of international datasets and secondary data to bear on the pressing and important questions of what international policy initiatives and responses are at work in the Asia Pacific region, and what these mean for the nature of migration governance in the region. The paper's focus routes the evidence and argument towards current research and policy debates about the relationship between health worker migration, health worker shortages and poor health outcomes. In this, the paper brings new insights into the analysis of the international policy ‘universe’ through its emphasis on multiple and intersecting cross‐border institutions, initiatives and actors operating across different scales. Coherent national and international strategies for integrated health worker migration governance and policy need to incorporate these insights, and the paper considers their implications for current strategies to attain universal health care and improved health outcomes in Asia Pacific and beyond.     

Change,Choice, and Commercialization: Backpacker Routes in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia has the world's oldest and largest backpacker trails. This paper examines the geographies of such flows, drawing upon the largest survey to date of backpackers in Asia using qualitative research to survey the key changes from the 1970s to the 2000s. Backpacker trails have changed significantly and new routes have emerged including the “northern trail” (Bangkok–Cambodia–Vietnam–Laos). It is to be expected that routes change as backpackers constantly seek new places, pioneering for later mass tourism. However, this paper suggests that using institutionalization as a framework, these changing trails and backpacker “choices” can be seen as driven by growing commercialization and institutionalization. This then operates in combination with external variables (travel innovations—low cost airlines, and new transport networks); exogenous shock (political instability, terrorism); and growing regional competition from emerging destinations such as Vietnam and Cambodia.     

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in the Asia‐Pacific region: The role of international assistance

Abstract: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a set of international development targets agreed to by members of the United Nations in 2000. The goals aim to improve many of the dimensions of extreme poverty and are to be achieved by 2015. This paper provides an overview of the issues relevant to the achievement of the MDGs in the Asia‐Pacific region. The paper begins by discussing the critiques of the MDGs before assessing whether countries in the region are on track to achieve them. Issues relating to data availability and accuracy are discussed and the need to tailor the MDG targets to the special circumstances of some Asia‐Pacific countries is examined. The paper proceeds by discussing the role of international assistance via international foreign development aid and non‐governmental organisations in the achievement of the MDGs. The paper concludes with some policy implications for the international donor community.     

Asia and the Pacific on the move: workers and refugees,a challenge to nation states

In the last 30 years international migration has been transformed from being of little or no significance in Asia to being of substantial economic, social, political and demographic importance. Two types of migration which have increased greatly in significance since the 1970s are international labour migration and refugee movements. Throughout most of the last two decades Asia has had more refugees than any other world region, although numbers have declined in the 1990s with the success of resettlement and repatriation programmes for Indochinese refugees. On the other hand, international labour migration has continued to increase in scale and importance, with the majority of workers moving between Asian countries in the 1990s, although the Middle East remains an important destination. It is argued that two elements, proliferating migrant social networks and the emergence of a vibrant immigration industry, have given a momentum to international migration which to some extent limits the power of nation states to control it. There is some concern among countries in the region that the increase in migration is creating excessive economic dependence upon the export of labour. Fears that migration threatens social cohesion depend upon the extent to which migrants settle permanently in destination areas.     

Commuting distances to local non‐farm workplaces and out‐migration: The case of Northeast Thailand

The relationship between commuting distances and where people work has been studied for urban contexts in both developed countries and developing countries. However, few studies have examined the situation in rural areas, and none look at commuting distances to non‐farm workplaces in rural areas of developing countries. This paper investigates how commuting distance, and thus accessibility, to local non‐farm work influences non‐farm employment and out‐migration from rural villages in Northeast Thailand. The main issues examined are: (i) the distance that rural residents travel to work in local non‐farm jobs; and (ii) the influence that local non‐farm employment has on the number of outmigrants from rural villages. The study finds: (i) distance between villages and non‐farm work sites impact the number of villagers who are employed in regular wage work; (ii) beyond 20 km villagers are less likely to travel to non‐farm employment using their own means of transportation; and (iii) employment in regular wage work decreases outmigration. The findings from this study contribute to the debates over the drivers of rural out‐migration, rural livelihood changes, and agrarian changes that are taking place in Southeast Asia.     

Between positionality and nudging: A rising China and Chinese voluntary associations in Southeast Asia

Drawing upon cases studies from Southeast Asia, especially Singapore and Malaysia, this article addresses the following questions pertaining to the rise of China and its impact upon Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) in the region over the past two decades. By employing theoretical insights of positionality, nudging and de-territorialisation and by focusing on various strategies pursued respectively by CVAs and the state, we conclude: (i) the growing economic ties between China and Southeast Asia serve as the platform through which the reconstruction of the CVAs take place; (ii) the reconstitution of the CVAs has been significantly driven by their own initiatives to compete in a new economy, in which knowledge of and connection with a rising China as an expanding market and a culture has advantages; (iii) the states in both China and Southeast Asia have played a part in the reconfiguration of the CVAs, motivated by their respective political and economic agendas; and (iv) it is imperative to go beyond the conventional approaches in understanding CVAs (internal structure and external connections) that have dominated much of the existing literature; and we argue that it is in the interactions and intersections between the internal dynamics and external political economy that a new type of CVAs has emerged.