Boasting the fastest growing Internet market in the world, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is accelerating into the digital economy. This book assesses the potential economic impact of digital economy agreements (DEAs) and the readiness of some ASEAN member states to grow the digital economy in collaboration. The book presents a novel framework to assess countries’ readiness to enter digital economy collaborations, following the architecture of Singapore’s DEAs with its trading partners. It takes a bird’s-eye view of the digital economy in ASEAN and reviews the current state of digital infrastructure and regulations. The book also includes simulation exercises to project economic outcomes delivered by regional collaborations. It also elaborates on the specific strengths and weaknesses of five ASEAN member states. These ASEAN member states include Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The book concludes by revisiting the ASEAN economy as a whole. It points out key issues country leaders need to work on as they proceed with digital economy collaborations. This book is written for scholars, policymakers, and industrial practitioners who wish to learn the latest developments in the ASEAN digital economy.

Foreign direct investments (FDI) play an integral role in the growth story of Emerging Asian economies. As an essential source of foreign capital, FDI bolsters the path to economic recovery from recessions, including the recent one caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This book is a collection of essays investigating the reconfiguration of FDI flows to the Emerging Asian economies of ASEAN, China and India following the pandemic and recent FDI policy reforms. This book broadly covers the trends in greenfield FDI flows to Emerging Asia in the context of three pertinent themes. Part one explores the rebalancing effects in global FDI flows after the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the experience of Emerging Asian economies. We also evaluate the nature of the pandemic's impact on existing FDI linkages between China and ASEAN. Part two delves into the implications of a cross-border policy framework such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In particular, we examine ASEAN trade activity after China's investments through BRI. We further discuss the future of BRI in ASEAN economies amidst the emergence of global competitors. Part three of the book zooms in on the effectiveness of domestic FDI policy reforms. We discuss the cases of Indonesia Special Economic Zones and the Make in India initiative. This book is written for scholars, policymakers, and industrial practitioners who wish to track more on the recent FDI dynamics of Emerging Asia.

Through the lens of the city of Suzhou, this edited volume presents views on the complex interaction between the central state, market agents, local governments and individuals who have shaped the development of Chinese cities and urban life. Featuring a range of disciplinary perspectives, contributors to this volume have all undertaken research in one municipality - Suzhou - to consider how history and culture have evolved during the modernisation of Chinese cities and the transformation of urban space, as well as shifting rural-urban relations and urban life during the reform era. The volume is underscored by a complex dynamic system consisting of three interlocked mechanisms through which the central and local state interact: history and culture, social and economic life, and administration and governance. As such, chapters analyse responses both from the state and society as driving forces of local development, with an interplay between tradition and heritage on the one hand and China's economic and social development on the other. Suzhou in Transition will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese and urban studies, as well as urban sociology and geography.

This book presents a study of how urban residency in China is regulated by state policy in the second decade of the 21st Century. Far from a straightforward divide between natives and newcomers, policy in this period has created delicate cross-classifications of internal migrants and attendant conditions under which they reside in particular urban areas. With reference to some of the most profound social theorists of the present day, such symbolic acts of division are explained as acts of statecraft carried out by different levels of public administration in the face of multiple quandaries. The book will appeal to those with an interest in the governance of population and territory in China, and by extension, in other parts of the contemporary world.

Through the lens of the city of Suzhou, this edited volume presents views on the complex interaction between the central state, market agents, local governments and individuals who have shaped the development of Chinese cities and urban life. Featuring a range of disciplinary perspectives, contributors to this volume have all undertaken research in one municipality - Suzhou - to consider how history and culture have evolved during the modernisation of Chinese cities and the transformation of urban space, as well as shifting rural-urban relations and urban life during the reform era. The volume is underscored by a complex dynamic system consisting of three interlocked mechanisms through which the central and local state interact: history and culture, social and economic life, and administration and governance. As such, chapters analyse responses both from the state and society as driving forces of local development, with an interplay between tradition and heritage on the one hand and China's economic and social development on the other. Suzhou in Transition will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese and urban studies, as well as urban sociology and geography.