Mid-term Assignment

(Macro indicators analysis on the ASEAN 10 member countries)

Name: Country:
Please answer below questions, and submission deadline will be:

1. Economy and Output

(1) What are the top three countries in GDP at Purchasing Power Parity base:
Indonesia
Thailand
Malaysia
(2) What are the top three countries showing the highest economic growth in real term
between 2005 and 2012 (Simple average growth rate)?
Laos
Cambodia
Myanmar
2. Industrial structure (sector percentage to GDP)
What are the top three highly industrialized and service oriented countries?
Singapore
Brunei Darussalam
Malaysia
3. Globalization and Market openness (Trade % to GDP)
What are the top three countries showing in market openness?
Singapore
Vietnam
Malaysia
4. External Finance (net FDI inflow to GDP)
What are the top three countries attracting FDI in past 7 years (2006 2012)?
Singapore
Vietnam
Laos
5. Macroeconomic stability (Inflation, Fiscal balance, and foreign exchange rate, etc)
Which country is the most stable and robust in terms of macroeconomic condition? And the
second best? And reasons why?
According to the Maastricht criteria, stability is measured by five variables which are: (1)
low and stable inflation; (2) low long-term interest rates; (3) low national debt relative to GDP;
(4) low deficit; (5) currency stability. Based on the comparison among 10 ASEAN countries
indicators, Brunei Darussalam remains the most macroeconomic stability regarding low and
stable inflation, low national debt relative to GDP, and low deficit, meanwhile Singapore holds
the second best position when almost of their five indicators are at the second or the first rank in
the regions comparison table.

Brunei Darussalam
Singapore
6. You are foreign investors, attractiveness for investment (Economic growth, Middle income
populations, Infrastructure, Purchasing power, doing business, etc)
First, you must identify your business (Textile, Automobile, Food processing, etc)
Which country is the most attractive for your investment? And reasons why?
Business: Textile industry
Regarding economic growth, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have gained relative high GDP
growth rate for five recent years which are among the highest rate in ASEAN 10. In terms of
other available indicators such as infrastructure, purchasing power and doing business, there are
not big differences among performance of those three countries. However, if I am the foreign
investor and doing business in textile industry, particularly garment industry, I would choose
Cambodia as a place to invest in because of these following reasons:
First, Cambodian garment industry has been growing up due to the relative cheaper in
labor cost than that in other ASEAN countries. The wage increase and labor shortage in China
and Vietnam recent years have played important role in the shift of orders to Cambodia which
lead to the high growth rate of garment industry in Cambodia.
Second, Cambodian government has provides a friendly and liberal economic policy with
relative comparable incentives for foreign investors which allows foreign firms can easily enter
the garment industry in Cambodia. The available in demand of a number of branded clothing in
Cambodia is also an advantage compare to Myanmar a newly opened economy.
7. Livability (People, Poverty, Equity, Economy, Social, and Green factors)
What is the best country to live among ASEAN 10? And reason why?
Regarding social and green indicators including human development index, life
expectancy, adult literacy rate, access to basic infrastructure utilities and services, deforestation
and pollution, Singapore is the country with the best performance in those indicators. In terms of
economic performance, Singapore people also receive the highest income at purchasing power
parity in ASEAN 10. It means people live in Singapore tend to live longer with higher income
and more opportunity to access public services such as education, health care and clean
environment.
Thus, based on comparison among above indicators, Singapore is the best country to live
among 10 ASEAN countries.