“Connectivity is the pathway to shared prosperity.” These words were stated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 13th ASEAN-India Summit held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2015. As ASEAN strives to achieve its goal of establishing a single market and become a fully integrated ASEAN Community, it is clear that connectivity is a crucial factor as demonstrated by the adoption of the revised ...

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has pointed out that gender inequalities constrain the control of women and girls over important decisions that affect their lives and restrain their access to vital resources. Existing cultural beliefs and traditional gender norms limit the capacity and authority of women to decide on their own and contribute to society. Women could ...

ASEAN has come a long way since the five foreign ministers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand came together in Bangkok in August 1967 to establish an organization that would promote economic and social cooperation. Since then, ASEAN has evolved from a loose and informal association into a Community of ten states encompassing political-security, economic, and socio-cultural ...

A perennial policy challenge facing the Philippines is job generation. Despite the recent trend of economic expansion, the economy has fallen short of creating more and better jobs. For its part, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has crafted its strategic plans to include job generation in line with the economic security pillar. Back in 2002, former Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople had high ...

Japan’s transition into one of the world’s rapidly aging societies continues to be manifested in its declining population. With 26 percent of its population over the age of 65 in 2016, it has the highest share of senior citizens among the members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and is expected to expand into more than 30 percent in 2025. The shrinking population, ...

The BRI seeks to build on the legacy of the traditional Silk Road as a venue for peaceful trade and harmonious cultural exchange. While the BRI is framed as a noble endeavor based on mutual benefit principle, many scholars consider the initiative as China’s strategy to strengthen global economic leverage and assert its global leadership role. The great concern for Central Asia lies in BRI’s probability ...

On 11 December 2015, the Philippines launched negotiations on its free trade deal with the European Union (EU), some three years after the two parties signed the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). In addition to being a prerequisite to FTA negotiations, the PCA functions as a general framework of relations between the two sides in the political, security, economic, and development spheres. ...

The Philippines’ bilateral relationship with the European Union (EU) is one of its most long standing and consequential diplomatic relationships. The Philippines benefits enormously from European trade, investment, and aid – not to mention, the political-security, socio-cultural, and development cooperation between the two sides. However, ties between the two have recently become strained. The EU ...

2015 was a fruitful year for Philippine micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as they witnessed and experienced strong momentum towards their development and eventual integration into the regional and global economies. Notably, several initia-tives and efforts aiming to link Philippine MSMEs into the Global Value Chains (GVCs) through the digital platform were simultaneously launched last year ...

After the successful hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, what is next for Philippine economic diplomacy in 2016? The presidential election in May 2016 provides an opportunity for the country to assess and recalibrate its policies to achieve the national interest. In the Department of Foreign Affairs, one policy that has been emphasized and will continue to be important is the promotion ...