ROLE OF SCIENCE IN ASEAN’S ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

BY NICKY ANGELA P. MANAS

11 – STEM SAN LORENZO RUIZ

In order to strengthen and stabilize the economic growth and development, socio-cultural
development and political security of the Southeast Asian countries, their leaders made an
association called ASEAN. It started with five countries namely: Indonesia, Malaysia,
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Now, there are five additional countries which are Brunei,
Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. Through this, the member countries support each other
in preventing problems that the nations face such as terrorism and drug trafficking.

On the year 2015, the association plans to establish new plans and policies to further
achieve economic integration among the country members. This ASEAN Integration was
believed to benefit the group but they are caught in between confusion, excitement and fear
about this plan according to the article of Joel D. Adriano entitled, "ASEAN’s economic
integration: how science can help." In this article, he tackled about the planned involvement of
science in the ASEAN integration and the supposed benefits of it. Furthermore, he presented
claims and evidences so the readers may understand and be sure that the article is factual.

His first claim is about the significance of the economic integration. Based on the article,
although this sounds good especially to the leaders of the Southeast Asian countries, there were
still doubts about the significance of this to the people, government, economy, and to the nation
itself. This claim was supported by the evidences like the statement of Jayant Menon, a lead
economist at Asian Development. He said that private sectors were not properly informed on
what the government of each nation are planning, or have agreed on. Therefore, this leads to a
conclusion as to why some of the people in Southeast Asia is skeptical about this. In addition, the
context of his claim is political. This is because he is trying to say that the government did not
provide enough information to their people which led to confusion and fear. Moreover, this claim
is an example of claim of fact because it presented true and quantifiable assertion of the topic.

The second claim of the writer is about the involvement of science on the said
integration. He stated that having clarity and emphasizing how science is a significant factor is
extremely important to the success of the whole integration plan of ASEAN. He supported this
statement by saying that the ASEAN leaders have recognized the role of science and technology
in promoting economic growth, and how it can be of help the process of integration.

"Science could help certain sectors or countries become more financially competitive. This is
something badly needed in the Philippines, for instance, where the cost of doing business is high,
bureaucracy cumbersome and traffic bad."

This was one of his evidences regarding his second claim. This is an example of an
effective evidence because it was able to support his claim and also strengthen it. By reading
this, the readers can now understand science and technology can help enhance economic growth.

To further strengthen this, he added information about how the professionals —

accountants, dentists, doctors and engineers — are having movements about the standardized
licensing and registration. Also, the issue about the thrashing of details about technology
cooperation and commercialization is added. These last two evidences imply that these are the
causes of not including the science and technology to the issue of economy in a country
particularly the Philippines. An evidence like this one is somewhat reliable because it stated facts
but is not able to present concrete examples such as statistics.

All in all, the context of his second claim is economic and political. This is because the
economy is the one that will be affected by the inclusion of science to the integration and the
government will be the one responsible to disseminate information about this and to implement
policies and laws about this.
Another claim presented in the article is that ASEAN members must agree on
scientifically accepted technologies and procedures to manage the flow of goods between them.
This implies that the harmony of the nations is a vital part of the economic integration because it
minimizes conflicts and contributes to the success of the plan. He supported this by saying that
they should all agree on the standards off healthy competition, intellectual property rights and
customs procedures so as to lessen the problems between countries and to easily promote the
economic growth of each country member. Another support to this is that if this is not met
especially the global standards of products, the effort put into this integration will all be put to
waste.
 These evidences showed to support the last claim are all reliable but not that concrete.
Sure, it stated truths about the topic but it did not give enough information. The supports are
merely his opinion and point of view but this does not mean that this claim is not acceptable. It is
acceptable because it can be classified as claim of value because of his philosophical insights.
Also, it can be categorized into claims of policy because it provides a solution for the issue of
harmonious relationship of the country members. The context of his claim is also economic and
political as it involves both the improvement of the economy and the involvement of the
government of the members of ASEAN in attaining this.
In conclusion, the claims and evidences supported in the article is all valid, reliable and
somewhat concrete. However, although some of it may be lacking in concreteness, it did not
lessen the validity of his claim. It is because some of the claims are really based on his
perspective and philosophical views which is not wrong because these are not mere opinions but
it can also be considered facts. This is because even though there are not evidences in quantity,
the qualitative evidences are still enough to be able to say that this is a justified or acceptable
claim. The context of his claims is commonly economic and political. This is obvious and not a
shock anymore because the ASEAN integration is really about the economy and the government
of the different countries involved in the association. Furthermore, he presented the claims and
evidences clearly and coherently that is why it is not difficult to locate and understand them.
ASEAN members must agree on scientifically accepted technologies and
procedures to manage the flow of goods between them.
By: Joel D. Adriano 18/08/14

As South-East Asia gears up to form a tighter economic community, states have much to
gain from scientific input.

Plans for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to achieve economic
integration by 2015 have had its ten member countries in a state of confusion, excitement and
fear for several months.

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will come into force next year but much of
the knowledge of its implications is still confined to the leaders involved in the negotiations and
discussions — and it has yet to trickle down to ordinary citizens.

Jayant Menon, lead economist at the Asian Development Bank, said at a book launch in
March that even the private sector is ill-informed about what individual governments are
planning, or have agreed on, with respect to economic integration.

“A tightly knit regional group could make the region relevant on the world stage amid the rise of
neighbouring economic giants China and India.”

Joel Adriano

It is important to clear the air and emphasise how science could be a significant factor in
making integration successful for the ASEAN countries and their people.

Slowly does it

For a start, referring to integration “by 2015” is a bit misleading, since integration will
not officially begin until 31 December of that year.

Also the planned integration has little in common with the European Union model, where
there is a single currency, judiciary and parliament — it only covers the free flow of goods and
cross-border investments, labour and services.

While there will be a scorecard on compliance, there will not be a penalty for failing to
hit targets, as the ASEAN takes a non-confrontational approach and works on consensus building
on these issues.

The planned changes are thus less dramatic than is portrayed by analysts and the media,
at least initially. Progress towards more complete economic integration will trickle in over the
next five to ten years.
 But nondramatic changes withstanding, the idea of integration makes perfect sense.
ASEAN is a big market, comprising 670 million people; it is larger than the EU (520 million)
and more than double the population of the United States. Together, the ASEAN countries
represent the sixth largest economy in the world — and one that is growing fast, led by
Indonesia.

A tightly knit regional group could make the region relevant on the world stage amid the
rise of neighbouring economic giants China and India.

Setting standards

Crucially, ASEAN leaders have recognised the role of science and technology in
promoting economic growth, and how it can help the process of integration. Discussions to date
have included the role of science in cooperation and setting research priorities.

For instance, roundtable discussions have thrashed out the details on technology
cooperation and commercialisation. There are also continuous negotiations on ‘mutual
recognition arrangements’: discussions on the movement of professionals — accountants,
dentists, doctors and engineers — within the region through standardised licensing and
registration.

And science could help certain sectors or countries become more financially competitive.
This is something badly needed in the Philippines, for instance, where the cost of doing business
is high, bureaucracy cumbersome and traffic bad.

Another area of concern is the harmonisation of standards on policies that promote

healthy competition, intellectual property rights, and customs procedures, as well as laboratory
testing and certification of exported products.

ASEAN members must agree on scientifically accepted technologies and procedures to

manage the flow of goods between them. This would apply to numerous agricultural products
from the region, in particular bananas, mangoes, pineapples and tiger prawns, that were banned
by certain countries in the past due to unacceptable levels of harmful pesticides or chemical
residues, even though they were deemed safe by the exporting countries.

Without ASEAN members agreeing to standards that can be used across the region, and
are accepted globally, more powerful countries will continue to exploit trade-barrier schemes
such as excessively stringent limits on certain ingredients — a problem that will persist even
within the integrated ASEAN community.
Benefits and readiness

Key sectors where cooperation on science and research will be crucial under the
integrated community include disaster management and preparedness, education, healthcare,
industry and IT.

Science can also play a big role in energy security by making the most of the region’s
abundant biofuel crops and sunshine. Cooperation could begin by countries working together to
realise an ASEAN power grid, for example, a concept that has been discussed for more than ten
years without any significant progress.

Integration could also benefit young scientists and researchers pursuing graduate degrees
by increasing the availability of financial support for internships outside their home countries
and by offering opportunities to do coursework in prestigious institutions within the region. This
could help soften the impact of the brain drain on the region.

Realising these benefits will, however, be a challenge. Harmonising policies is difficult

and cumbersome — ASEAN bureaucracy is even worse than the bureaucracy within individual
governments. And the political hurdles are high.

There is also the real issue of readiness to integrate. As the start date for integration
approaches, there is growing concern amongst the poorer ASEAN members that they will not be
able to compete against the stronger economies of Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

To make them more competitive, individual member countries must strengthen their
research and development capabilities where they have advantages, for example human
resources in the Philippines, and make sure that local concerns are not neglected over regional
ones.

And for science to make a really meaningful contribution, each country needs to
understand and clarify the demands that integration would put on their various economic sectors
and development concerns. This would make it easier to clarify the role of science and research
in meeting those demands.