Florence Chong's blog

ASEAN needs to have a clearer direction of how to engage with the private sector and to align investment from non-ASEAN countries with development plans at both sub-region and regional level. Some believe it could take 10-15 years for the AEC’s potential to be achieved . . .

ASEAN is about safety in numbers – about speaking with a collective voice that can be heard on the global stage . . .

INDIVIDUAL Governments are beginning to face up to the challenge of maintaining control as more business activities go online . . . 

THE TPP is a geopolitical play more-so than a trade deal. It is Washington telling Beijing it still has influence in Asia . . .

HAVING achieved an economic miracle in its first 50 years, will Singapore suffer a mundane descent into mediocrity over its next half century . . .

IF a week-long cloister of Trade Ministers from 12 countries in July can close off a deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), signing of a US-EU pact, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), may not be far behind . . .

Pirates, smugglers and territorial claims have fed a cauldron of instability in the waters around Asia . . .

MALAYSIANS at large feel a heightened sense of insec-urity because of the rise in Islamic fundamentalism and some of the actions of their Government . . .

CHINA’s Silk Roads concept offers sackcloth and ashes to those not toeing the Chinese line (witness Japan and the Philippines). These land and sea roads are all about restoring China’s greatness and superiority . . .

LOWER oil prices could be a passing phenomenon. As more energy projects are stalled or mothballed, what price will future consumers be asked to pay?