Book review of An Analysis of the Philippine Economic Crisis: A Workshop Report by Dante Canlas et al.

Two anomalous events occurred along the coast of north Borneo: (a) large numbers of small pelagic fish (“Tamban”) jumped onto the shore at Tambisan in Lahad Datu, Sabah, East Malaysia, on 24 December 2013; and (b) large numbers of live clams appeared at Lumut beach, Brunei Darussalam, on 3 January 2014. The paper attempts to explain the occurrence of these anomalous events by comparing plausible explanations based on atmosphere-oceanic interactions with wind, wave and surface ocean current patterns generated using MeteoInfo, an open-source GIS software. Reanalysed data were obtained from Live Access Servers (LAS), notably NOAA’s geophysical fluid dynamics lab using its WaveWatch3 and OceanWatch models. Although the study is not conclusive, it found some patterns that support the proposed hypotheses and provide plausible scientific explanations for the events. The fish incident at Tambisan therefore appears to be caused by ocean currents forcing pelagic shoals into a constricted channel, while the clams at Lumut were mobilised and deposited by waves-generated currents produced by atmospheric circulation a few days leading to the incident. Other factors, such as Internal Waves or Solitons, were also discussed. A major challenge encountered is presenting large number of the maps generated, in printed format, and in a way that does not reduce their readability.

Particulate matter (PM10) is the pollutant causing exceedances of ambient air quality thresholds, and the key indicator of air quality index in Brunei Darussalam for haze related episodes caused by the recurrent biomass fires in Southeast Asia. The present study aims at providing suitable forecasts for PM10 exceedances to aid in health advisory during haze episodes at the four administrative districts of the country. A framework based on random forests (RFs), genetic algorithm (GA) and back propagation neural networks (BPNN) computational intelligence techniques has been proposed in which the final prediction is made by the BPNN model. A hybrid combination of GA and RFs is initially applied to determine optimal set of inputs from the initial data sets of largely available meteorological, persistency of high pollution levels, short and long term variations of emissions rates parameters. The inputs selection procedure does not depend on the back propagation training algorithm. The numerical results presented in this paper show that the proposed model not only produced satisfactory forecasts but also consistently performed better via several statistical performance indicators when compared with the standard BPNN and GA optimisation based on back propagation training algorithm. The model also showed satisfactory threshold exceedances forecasts achieving for instance best true predicted rate of 0.800, false positive rate of 0.014, false alarm rate of 0.333 and success index of 0.786 at Brunei-Muara district monitoring station. Overall, the current study has profound implications on future studies to develop a real-time air quality forecasting system to support haze management.

Documentation of ASEAN Chronology 1984 (January-June).

Documentation of ASEAN Chronology 1984 (July-December).

Documentation of ASEAN Chronology 1985 (January-April).

Book review of ASEAN Energy Issues, Proceedings of the Sixth Conference of the Federation of ASEAN Economic Associations, Bangkok, Thailand, 12-14 November 1981 edited by Praipol Koomsup.

Documentation of ASEAN-Japan Economic Council (AJEC) Code of Ethics.

Book review of Aspects of ASEAN edited by Werner Pfennig and Mark M.B. Suh.

Documentation of Basic Agreement on ASEAN Industrial Joint Ventures.

The present national history of the Sultanate of Brunei includes a fabricated history of official Brunei-China relations that extends as far back as the sixth century AD. The present paper treats the subject of Boni, a place well documented by pre-modern Chinese sources starting from the tenth century. It attempts to address some major issues in the use of these sources to establish Boni as a precursor of modern Brunei. Since the late 1970s writers within Brunei, foremost among them Robert Nicholl, have contributed to the project of a long history of pre-modern Brunei by interpreting the available Chinese sources very narrowly. Based on a close reading of the original texts, this essay argues that the majority of the texts until the Ming dynasty quote from the first extant source in the tenth century. Hence, official Chinese perception of Boni did not increase over time, but in fact did stagnate. Consequently, identification with a specific location in Borneo, as Nicholl and C. Brown suggested, is impossible. What the essay suggests is that with the extant official pre-modern Chinese texts Boni cannot be established as Brunei, but that more likely, Boni under different dynasties referred to various places on the north coast of Borneo.

The study compares the socioeconomic development of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to that of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). SAARC was established on December 8, 1985, as a result of former President Ziaur Rahman's efforts to promote the welfare of the people and mutual trust. ASEAN was founded in August 1967 with the goal of accelerating the region's economic growth, social progress, and cultural development while also promoting regional peace and stability. The SAARC countries share problems such as poverty and unemployment. SAARC countries have a GDP per capita four times that of ASEAN. A qualitative analysis based on secondary data pertaining to SAARC and ASEAN reveals that SAARC has not been more successful than ASEAN. National and international conflicts are common within SAARC. SAARC has 22% of the world's population and 3% of the world's economy, and there are enormous opportunities for economic growth and human development.

Documentation of conferences, workshops, and seminars concerning ASEAN economic cooperation, trade, development, and policy discussion.

This article analyses two types of provisions relevant to corruption in Asian international investment agreements (IIAs): clauses requiring (host) states to enforce anti-corruption laws and clauses that protect foreign investments made in accordance with host state laws. It tests whether IIA drafters act rationally regarding such clauses, or instead show status quo or other biases. This is complex first because rational strategies should depend on whether the state is a net exporter of foreign direct investment (FDI) or a net importer, but we explain how determining this status may be difficult. Secondly, rational strategies should depend on the relative extent of corruption in each state and, somewhat relatedly, the extent of inbound FDI claims. Despite such complexities and some instances of more ‘bounded’ rationality, overall states seem to be drafting both types of clauses rationally—even, and indeed especially, the net-FDI-importing states that tend to be transitioning economies. Adding to that empirical result from a more normative perspective, the article helps identify factors that could or should be considered by future IIA drafters, international bodies, or others tracking the trajectories of IIAs and corruption in Asia and beyond.

In recent years, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a prominent endeavour in numerous enterprises and organizations. The purpose of this article is to investigate the theoretical aspects of CSR's commercial significance, as well as to identify and analyse CSR practices during COVID-19 in Bangladesh and Singapore. Government funding alone may not be sufficient to offset any adversity's economic and other consequences. Hence, CSR has evolved. This article examines what role CSR played during the difficult COVID-19 pandemic in two countries. The private sector made significant contributions through CSR to healthcare infrastructure and mitigating the economic burden of COVID-19 in both countries.

Remittance inflows have been recorded as the second major external source of finance after ODA and an important source of funds for growth in South Asian countries. This review paper examines the interaction between remittances and development in South Asia. Most receiving countries have experienced a major increase in remittance inflows and increase in growth of their GDP. The migration-development nexus is drawn, however, generally on the contribution of migrants’ remittances to the GDP of receiving countries. While this contribution could no way be undermined, the calculation of this contribution is largely done by excluding some significant factors such as loan taken to finance migration; opportunity cost; remittances fee; risks and life lost. There are arguments that the entire amount of remittances channeled into South Asian countries does not go to development. Though there is huge potential to contribute to the development, South Asia did not fully benefit from migrant remittances. This may be because of the fact that channelling remittances, uses of it and lack of financial sector development have thwarted the potential.