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.

The Chinese economy has been playing an increasingly significant role on the global stage. This book is the sixth annual project of Asia Competitiveness Institute studying competitiveness at the sub-national level of Greater China. ACI's flagship competitiveness study not only adopts a comprehensive framework to measure competitiveness by incorporating 102 indicators under four environments and 11 sub-environments, but is also undertaken at the sub-national level to account for the considerable disparities within a large economy like Greater China. The comparative strengths and weaknesses based on the scores and rankings as well as the what-if simulation analysis can be used to formulate development strategies that are specific and of practical value for each sub-national economy and region.The Shapley methodology adopted by ACI introduces a novel approach for the assignment of weights to the various indicators that constitute competitiveness. This concept has introduced an element of objectivity in terms of the assignment of weights. The findings using the Shapley value also tend to validate the robustness of results obtained from the competitiveness studies over the past years.Moreover, the empirical research featured in this book attempts to understand the drivers of exports of Mainland China provinces, with a specific focus on real effective exchange rate movements and volatility. Nowadays with the international flows of goods and capital becoming ubiquitous and comprising an important aspect of national competitiveness, the role of exchange rate is drawing much more policy attention. In view of this, the research findings presented in this book make an important academic and policy contribution by empirically examining the relationship between exports and exchange rate.Finally, the timing of this publication makes it indispensable to include some dedicated discussions of the trade disputes between the US and China. Several topics would be discussed in this book, including China's protection on Intellectual Property Rights, its violation of World Trade Organisation rules, challenges to its economic growth, the development of its three regional megalopolises, and how to mitigate the impact and ramification of its trade war against the US. This book attempts to identify the growing concerns in the US-China trade tension and provide suggestions for China's development in the future.

Shandong is a thriving economic centre with a Gross Regional Domestic Product of RMB 6.3 trillion in 2015, the third-highest in China. It is also the third-largest province by land area in the country with the second-largest resident population of 98,470,000. With such impressive characteristics, Shandong's urbanisation rate had quickly expanded from 45 percent in 2005 to 57 percent in 2017. As such, in line with the growing affluence of the province, the people's ever-growing demand for urban development in areas such as infrastructure, public services, education and environmental protection has exceeded the provision of such facilities.In view of these developments, the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), National University of Singapore (NUS) developed Shandong's first city-level index which assesses the levels of urban development and liveability for each city. The ranking and simulation analysis via the Urban Composite Development Index for 17 Shandong cities was constructed to provide an empirically robust framework to better understand the quality of urban development of Shandong cities in a comprehensive and rigorous manner, while at the same time highlight important policy implications for further growth and development. Further, this publication incorporates key elements which ensures that the construction of the index is unique, empirically sound and relevant to Shandong's development in the context of China.Overall, the analysis provided in this book relates to the broad dimensions of urban development of Shandong cities and can stand up to academic scrutiny as it is based on rigorous methodological foundations. In addition, the study will remain accessible and appealing to policymakers as it offers tailored policy recommendations based on the analysis that will enable them to take appropriate policy interventions in each city to improve their overall performance in urban development. This research will help to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each city and empower policymakers to formulate more effective development strategies.