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15726 results in ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute

Page 132 of 787

  • 1 - Locating Asia, Arresting Asia: Grappling with “The Epistemology that Kills”

  • from Part I - Conceptualizing the Region: Past and Present
  • Edited by Andrea Acri, Kashshaf Ghani, Murari K. Jha, Sraman Mukherjee
  • Book:
    Imagining Asia(s)
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    31 January 2020
    Print publication:
    23 October 2019, pp 17-35

  • Summary

    THE ARRESTING GAZE: ASIA IS FRAMED

    Asia reveals itself, over iced coffee.

    A few years I ago I found myself walking down Orchard Road in downtown Singapore. I walked past one of those generic coffee bars that serve beverages that purport to have some family resemblance to coffee; and chanced upon two tourists who were sitting outside as they enjoyed their iced caramel lattes. Both were male, Caucasian, and both were uniformly dressed in some kind of “Camel Trophy-Safari” kind of get-up (presumably to blend in with the background, if not each other). Then one of them said to the other: “I believe that here I have found the heart of Asia”.

    That Asia can reveal its heart over iced coffee in a high-street urban coffee bar is not surprising, for that is indeed the state of Asia today. Before proceeding any further, I would like to situate this discussion in the context of the here-and-now, which is a modern Asia that exists firmly in the modern era.

    In this chapter I wish to raise a problem—one that I have not been able to resolve myself, and one which is itself a symptom of the modern times we live in. That we today are embedded in modernity seems fairly self-evident: Asia's political boundaries today are basically the same boundaries that were drawn in the nineteenth century, when the power of colonial capitalism was at its height. Our nation-states, built as they were on the foundations of colonies of the past (none of which were ever democracies, it could be added) are fundamentally modern constructs in the mould of the Westphalian model. Our epistemologies and vocabularies are likewise modern, replete with references to citizenship, economic agents, assets and commodities, territories, and spaces that are often taken as ontologically set and given. In terms of who and what we are, our sense of identity and what constitutes identities that are Asian are also predicated upon a binary logic where an oppositional form of dialectics is seen to be at work.

  • 13 - The Highlands of West Sumatra and their Maritime Trading Connections

  • from Part V - Trans-Local Dynamics and Intra-Asian Connections across Space and Time
  • Edited by Andrea Acri, Kashshaf Ghani, Murari K. Jha, Sraman Mukherjee
  • Book:
    Imagining Asia(s)
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    31 January 2020
    Print publication:
    23 October 2019, pp 393-424

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    Not much is known about the settlement processes that have contributed to create the unique ethnic and cultural diversity in the highlands of Sumatra. Archaeological fieldwork since 2003 in the upland regions—in Kerinci, the highlands of Jambi (Bonatz et al. 2009; Bonatz 2012; Tjoa-Bonatz 2009, 2015a), and in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra—point to commercial interactions between the highland and maritime regions since the first millennium CE. From 2010 to 2014, an interdisciplinary team under the direction of Dominik Bonatz has undertaken field research in Tanah Datar (literally “flat land”), a valley in West Sumatra in the core area of the Minangkabau community (Figures 13.1 and 13.2). The Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology at Freie Universität Berlin (FU Berlin) sponsored by the German Research Foundation has pursued excavations and surveys in cooperation with international institutions. Meanwhile, Arlo Griffiths (École française d'Extrême-Orient Jakarta) directed an epigraphic research project. The focus of the project is the reign of King Ādityavarman (c.1347–75), who established the centre of his polity in the highlands of Tanah Datar and issued twenty-two inscriptions from the middle of the fourteenth century. These dated inscriptions (Figure 13.3) provide the chronological anchor and fulcrum of the research project, which deals with the archaeological remains and the reconstruction of regional settlement processes before and after this period (Tjoa-Bonatz forthcoming).

    Many fundamental changes can be identified in the societies of Southeast Asia when a new global economy emerged in the fifteenth century, a period characterized by Reid (1993) as the “Age of Commerce”. Scholars have emphasized the importance of the fifteenth century as the starting point for the modern period of Southeast Asian history (see, e.g., Wade and Laichen 2010). When archaeological materials are brought into account, a key question that arises when this shift appeared, probably not as a sudden event, a sharp discontinuity with the former times, but as a gradual change towards new economic modes that were already in existence before 1400 (Miksic 2010, p. 385). The archaeological material at hand to test this hypothesis in island Southeast Asia is rather limited.

  • 5 - British Romantic Poetics and the Idea of Asia

  • from Part II - Conceptualizing Asia through the Prism of Europe
  • Edited by Andrea Acri, Kashshaf Ghani, Murari K. Jha, Sraman Mukherjee
  • Book:
    Imagining Asia(s)
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    31 January 2020
    Print publication:
    23 October 2019, pp 125-144

  • Summary

    European colonialism, embedded in the values of early capitalism, was, as we well know today, the fecund breeding ground of what was named as Orientalism, the obverse image of all that was then necessarily defined as the Occidental. This historical shift that began in the late seventeenth century gathered momentum in the eighteenth century and came to its fullness in the nineteenth century, forming a long and complex cultural, political, economic, and psychological narrative. This multilayered, multicultural, mixed race account still shapes the ways in which the new global order responds even in the twenty-first century. While initially it was the German and French orientalists who awoke to the “discovery” of new Asian civilizations with rich ancient cultures and traditions, ultimately it was the British colonialists with their army of erudite bureaucrats, lawmakers, and savants who were most successful in “translating” Asia and exporting it back to their mother country—a country soon to be named as Great Britain—from the Asian colonies. Among other modes they did this through lithographs and watercolours; poems, plays and novels; language, script, material objects, and ideas.

    Eighteenth-century England, with its vast sweeping changes brought upon by the bloodless Glorious Revolution of 1688 altered forever the relationship between the British sovereign and the British people and became the natural breeding ground for this intercultural transfer. In consequence, in the “long eighteenth century” (thus named by literary critics), there were now present newly awakened republican subjects with a sense of their own individual worth. A populace living in hamlet, village, county, and increasingly in freshly industrialized towns, who were slowly discarding what the poet William Blake would famously describe as their “mind forg'd manacles.” This spirit of libertarianism was fuelled by the increasing literacy that, in turn, led subjects to think about themselves in novel ways. The question “Who am I?” could no longer be answered in terms of the former Elizabethan “Great Chain of Being” where, for centuries, a person was cast in the smithy of an iron class demography, a system as old as the history of the founding of feudal Britain itself.

  • Introduction

  • Edited by Andrea Acri, Kashshaf Ghani, Murari K. Jha, Sraman Mukherjee
  • Book:
    Imagining Asia(s)
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    31 January 2020
    Print publication:
    23 October 2019, pp 1-14

  • Summary

    This edited volume stems from the conference “Imagining Asia(s): Networks, Actors, Sites” held at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in October 2016, jointly organized by the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre (Singapore) and Nalanda University (India). This event, bringing together fourteen scholars from various countries, constituted a landmark for the collaboration between the two institutions and, we believe, also a gesture towards the academic and intellectual “rapprochement” between two regions of the world—South and Southeast Asia—whose deeply connected histories have been forgotten for a long time, and need now, more than ever, to be (re)conceptualized as an integrated phenomenon. Indeed, the intellectual agenda driving this conference has been an engagement with the idea of “Asia” in the frame of Area Studies scholarship and, at the same time, a commitment to the study of Intra-Asian networks and connections that has been the hallmark of recent scholarship, including the very series in which this volume has been published.

    Asia has long been perceived as a clear and distinct geographical unit. As a continent lying to the east of Europe, it has been malleable to different imaginations and politics. Area studies scholarship, for example, has carved Asia into the seemingly self-contained regions of West and Central Asia, South and Southeast Asia, and East Asia. These regional configurations reflect more the changing (geo)political and economic interests in these areas rather than any of their historical or cultural roots. Recent scholarship, however, has presented Asia as a cultural entity produced through political imaginations located in specific historical contexts, and revealed the arbitrariness of the Area Studies divide. More importantly, it has advanced the question as to what Asia is, and as to whether there existed one or many Asia(s).

    Following the lead of such scholarship, this conference sought to explore Asian societies as interconnected formations through trajectories/ networks of circulation of people, ideas, and objects in the longue durée. Moving beyond the divides of conventional Area Studies scholarship and the arbitrary borders set by late colonial empires and the rise of postcolonial nation-states, this conference mapped critically the configuration of contact zones in which mobile bodies, minds, and cultures interact to foster new images, identities, and imaginations of Asia.

  • 9 - Competition and E-commerce in the Philippines

  • from PART IV
  • Edited by Cassey Lee, Eileen Lee
  • Book:
    E-Commerce, Competition and ASEAN Economic Integration
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    31 January 2020
    Print publication:
    10 October 2019, pp 232-270

  • Summary

    Introduction

    While the Philippines is home to a large and growing number of internet and mobile phone users, e-commerce in the country is still at a nascent stage. Data from the Better Than Cash Alliance (BTCA) showed that e-commerce makes up less than 1 per cent of total commerce in the Philippines in 2015, compared to 4–5 per cent in other neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia. In terms of the necessary infrastructure to facilitate online transactions, the country ranked 89th out of 137 countries, according to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

    Meanwhile, e-commerce continues to affect an increasing number of traditional businesses and industries. In addition, the last few years saw the emergence of new businesses models such as online platforms like Lazada, Zalora and Shopee, and commercial sharing economy services like GrabTaxi and AirBnB. Considering the increasing role that e-commerce will play in firms, this chapter focuses on how e-commerce affects firm productivity. Further, it seeks to contribute to the debate about e-commerce and its effects on competition. Put together, this poses an interesting question from the competition perspective: how does the interplay of e-commerce use and competition shape firm productivity?

    E-commerce directly affects firms’ performance by cutting time and costs of production. The resulting savings, in turn, could then be re-allocated to more productive activities. Several studies have shown that selling online results in low distribution costs (Lal and Sarvary 1999; Van Cayseele and Degryse 2000; Wadhwani 2000; DePrince and Ford 1999), as the internet has made it possible for goods and services to move from producers to end-consumers without going through the entire traditional supply chain. Cost efficiency may also be achieved through e-commerce by rationalizing firms’ processes in purchasing inputs (Degraeve and Roodhooft 2001; Konings and Roodhoft 2002; Sinha 2000). Purchasing online also lowers administrative and inventory holding costs, reduces maverick buying and saves time (Benjamin and Wigand 1995; Whyte 2000; Aberdeen Group 2001). Examining the impact of the internet on transaction cost, Garicano and Kaplan (2001) find that the internet has resulted in a large drop in coordination costs due to process improvements and marketplace benefits that make it easier and less costly to search for products, compare prices or find buyers.

  • 4 - E-commerce and Trade Policy

  • from PART III
    • By Cassey Lee, Senior Fellow, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore
  • Edited by Cassey Lee, Eileen Lee
  • Book:
    E-Commerce, Competition and ASEAN Economic Integration
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    31 January 2020
    Print publication:
    10 October 2019, pp 53-60

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, has become increasingly important globally. Based on UNCTAD's (2017) estimates, the value of global e-commerce was estimated to have reached US$25 trillion in 2015. Of this, US$7 billion are cross-border Business to Consumer (B2C) e-commerce. Using trade data from the World Bank, cross-border B2C accounts for only 0.04 per cent of total global exports. If we assume that the volume of Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce is nine times larger than that of B2C, e-commerce's share of global trade was 0.4 per cent in 2015. Though cross-border e-commerce is still a small portion of global trade, its share is likely to increase significantly in the future. Aliresearch (2016) estimates that global cross-border e-commerce will increase at an annual rate of 27.3 per cent during 2014–20.

    The rising importance of e-commerce in global trade is also reflected not only in the inclusion of e-commerce related provisions in trade agreements but the increasingly more detailed coverage of such provisions. Of the 275 regional trade agreements (RTAs) in force and notified to the World Trade Organization (WTO) as of May 2017, 75 RTAs (27.3 per cent) explicitly addressed e-commerce (Monteiro and Teh 2017). More than 60 per cent of the RTAs that have entered into force between 2014 and 2016 contained e-commerce provisions (ibid.). The evolution of e-commerce provisions is also related to the evolution in e-commerce itself. Technological changes have been major drivers of this. Finally, e-commerce provisions in trade agreements also have important implications for domestic policies such as competition policy.

    This chapter aims to examine the nature and evolution of e-commerce related provisions in trade agreements. The outline of the chapter is as follows. Section 2 discusses how e-commerce is contextualized within trade policy. Section 3 examines how e-commerce chapters in trade agreement have evolved and the factors driving these changes. Section 4 discusses some of the implications of these provisions for competition. Finally, Section 5 concludes.

    Contextualizing E-commerce in Trade Policy

    The starting point for placing e-commerce within the context of trade policy is the definition of e-commerce. What is e-commerce and how is it related to cross-border trade in goods and services?

  • 8 - E-commerce in Singapore: Current State, Policies and Regulations

  • from PART IV
    • By Kala Anandarajah, Head, Competition & Antitrust and Trade Lead Partner, Corporate Governance, Tanya Tang, Partner (Chief Economic and Policy Advisor), Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP, Zheng Xi, Associate, Rajah & Tann Asia Singapore LLP
  • Edited by Cassey Lee, Eileen Lee
  • Book:
    E-Commerce, Competition and ASEAN Economic Integration
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    31 January 2020
    Print publication:
    10 October 2019, pp 193-231

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Singapore has a highly developed and open economy. The country, which has the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Southeast Asia, is also well-known for its corruption-free environment. The main drivers of the growth of the Singaporean economy include the manufacturing, finance and insurance sectors (Ministry of Trade and Industry 2017). The Singapore population is highly educated and tech-savvy, with a literacy rate of 97.0 per cent amongst residents aged 15 years and above (Department of Statistics Singapore n.d.), and 84 per cent of the population are internet users in 2016 (IMDA 2018). The Singapore government has encouraged Singaporean businesses to venture into overseas markets by taking advantage of new opportunities in the digital economy and build strong capabilities in innovation and enterprise (Budget 2017). These conditions make Singapore a conducive environment for the growth and development of e-commerce.

    This chapter provides an analysis of the current state of e-commerce in Singapore from a number of perspectives. The outline of this chapter is as follows. After defining e-commerce in Section 2, the state of e-commerce infrastructure is discussed in Section 3. The size of Singapore's e-commerce is examined in Section 4. The evolution of e-commerce in terms of the major players in the industry is discussed in Section 5. Government policies, as well as the laws and regulations governing e-commerce in the country, are covered in Sections 6 and 7, respectively. Competition law and policy-related issues are discussed in Section 8. Factors that can impede and restrict the opportunities for e-commerce growth in Singapore are discussed in Section 9. Finally, Section 10 concludes by presenting policy recommendations for the further development of e-commerce in Singapore.

    Defining E-commerce

    E-commerce refers to the sale and purchase of goods and services over the internet and includes ancillary activities which support such transactions. E-commerce transactions can take place between businesses and consumers (B2C), between businesses (B2B) or between the government and businesses (G2B); between consumers (C2C) whereby consumers buy and sell directly to each other through platforms such as eBay; as well as between the government and citizens via the offering of e-Government services.

  • 6 - E-commerce Development in Indonesia: Challenges and Prospects

  • from PART IV
  • Edited by Cassey Lee, Eileen Lee
  • Book:
    E-Commerce, Competition and ASEAN Economic Integration
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    31 January 2020
    Print publication:
    10 October 2019, pp 119-168

  • Summary

    Introduction

    In recent years, there have been both high expectations and stimulating development in e-commerce sector in Southeast Asia in general and in Indonesia in particular. High expectations come from both private and public sectors. For instance, Google-Temasek (2016) predicted that Southeast Asia will be the fastest growing internet market in the world (reaching around 480 million internet users by 2020). Moreover, they projected that Indonesia will become the fastest growing internet market in the world, with 19 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the period of 2015–20. By 2025, Indonesia is expected to account for 52 per cent of e-commerce market in the Southeast Asian region. In addition to Google-Temasek's upbeat projection, McKinsey (2016) estimated that the value of the Indonesian e-commerce market will reach US$150 billion by 2025.

    In November 2016, the Indonesian government released the 14th economic policy package, which aims to promote the country's e-commerce business environment. In this economic policy package, the government sets an ambitious target to create “1,000 technology entrepreneurs” with business valuation up to US$10 billion by 2020. Almost a year later, in August 2017, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo signed a Presidential Regulation No. 74/2017 on the Roadmap for the National Electronic Commerce System 2017–2019 (Sekretariat Kabinet Republik Indonesia 2017). This regulation provides the required legal framework for e-commerce business operation in Indonesia.

    Despite various upbeat projections on e-commerce prospect in Indonesia, there are many challenges facing the sector development in the country. Firstly, there is a limited pool of skilled workers trained in information and communication technologies (ICT) and in related fields, such as software engineers, coders, platform developers, and so on. Secondly, the internet penetration rate in the country is still low (at around 34 per cent), with internet speed still on the lowest end in the region (average 6.7 Mbps in 2016). Thirdly, the payment mechanism is still limited, also with more than 60 per cent of the population having no access to banking institutions. Fourthly, Indonesia's archipelagic-topographical structure creates additional challenge in terms of high logistical cost. This challenge is worsened by poor infrastructure and limited delivery options.

  • 7 - Development of E-commerce in Malaysia

  • from PART IV
    • By Tham Siew Yean, Senior Fellow, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore
  • Edited by Cassey Lee, Eileen Lee
  • Book:
    E-Commerce, Competition and ASEAN Economic Integration
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    31 January 2020
    Print publication:
    10 October 2019, pp 169-192

  • Summary

    Introduction

    According to OECD (undated), an e-commerce transaction is the sale or purchase of goods or services, conducted over computer networks by methods specifically designed for the purpose of receiving or placing of orders. The goods or services are ordered by those methods, but the payment and the ultimate delivery of the goods or services do not have to be conducted online. An e-commerce transaction can be between enterprises, households, individuals, governments, and other public or private organizations. This encompasses a broad range of commercial activities, including among others, business to business (B2B or e-commerce between companies), business to consumer (B2C, or between companies and consumers), consumer to consumer (C2C), or e-commerce between consumers. Transactions to be included are orders made over the web, extranet or electronic data interchange. The type of transaction is defined by the method of placing the order. Transactions to be excluded are orders made by telephone calls, facsimile or manually typed email.

    The development of e-commerce has attracted the attention of developing countries due to its potential to contribute towards sustainable development. Transaction costs can be reduced with e-commerce as it can be used to lower barriers to entry by eliminating certain costs related to having a physical storefront (WTO/OECD 2017). This provides more opportunities especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to enhance their market access in domestic and foreign markets, thereby increasing the scalability prospects of these enterprises. When more inputs can be delivered digitally, it will also facilitate the management of fragmented production networks and the operation of global value chains (GVCs). Since it enhances productivity, more firms can also shift to exports. It also provides enhanced opportunities for women entrepreneurs and rural traders thereby empowering the disadvantaged. Consumers can also benefit through lower prices, greater convenience, and more varieties to choose from.

    Rillo and dela Cruz (2016) reported the findings from Qiang, Rossotto, and Kimura (2009), which showed that increased broadband access has accelerated economic growth due to the close link between information and communications technology (ICT) diffusion and firm level productivity. They further cited a McKinsey Global Institute study (2011) that found internet access has helped SMEs in eight developing countries to create 3.2 jobs for every job lost.

  • 3 - E-commerce and Competition Law: How Does Competition Assessment Change with E-commerce?

  • from PART II
    • By Eileen Lee, Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS), 2016–18, Lip Hang Poh, Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS), 2016–17
  • Edited by Cassey Lee, Eileen Lee
  • Book:
    E-Commerce, Competition and ASEAN Economic Integration
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    31 January 2020
    Print publication:
    10 October 2019, pp 33-50

  • Summary

    Introduction

    E-commerce has garnered considerable attention from competition authorities, given that there are a growing number of competition cases related to digital commerce in recent years. For instance, the US Department of Justice prosecuted David Topkins, an art seller on Amazon Marketplace, for price fixing. Topkins conspired with other sellers to fix the prices of posters using customized algorithms between September 2013 and January 2014 (United States Department of Justice 2015). Most Favoured Nation (MFN) clauses have also been the subject of investigations by the European Union DG Competition (EU DG COMP) and national competition authorities in EU member states.

    Given that competition authorities are in the business of regulating business behaviour, how does e-commerce activities impact competition assessment? In this chapter, we consider the impact of e-commerce on two fundamental steps of competition assessment:

  • a. Market definition; and

  • b. Market power.

    • Market definition is typically the first step of competition assessment as it provides a framework for analysis through identifying the competitive constraints acting on a seller of a product or service. It can be thought of as a “quick and dirty” tool to determine if a seller is likely to have market power.

    Competition law essentially “regulate” business behaviour that hampers market competition. It is primarily concerned about whether the exercise of market power by business entities leads to any adverse impact on competition. In an abuse of dominance case, it is clear that the abuse of market power by a dominant undertaking perpetuates its market position in ways unrelated to competitive merits. Competitors acting in concert e.g. in price-fixing or production control cartels create and abuse market power. Merger control, on the other hand, is concerned from the ex-ante perspective, i.e., whether the merged entity has the market power to increase prices unilaterally, leading to non-coordinated effects in a horizontal merger situation, or foreclosure of competitors in the supply chain in a vertical merger situation.

    Drawing from the findings on consumer and business behaviour from the EU DG COMP's preliminary e-commerce sector study report and the Competition Commission of Singapore's (CCS) commissioned report on E-commerce and its Impact on Competition Policy and Law in Singapore, we study how these findings impact these two fundamental steps of competition assessment.

Page 132 of 787