Convenor
Ong Seng Huat
Institute of Religious Studies, UEA, Malaysia
Abstract
ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations) includes ten Member States: Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Viet Nam, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia. For example, Indonesia and Vietnam both benefit from having large markets thanks to their large populations. For labor-intensive industries, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar would be the destination. Vietnam, which used to attract investments focused on low labour cost, is not as attractive as it used to be.
Since 2008, as the international financial crisis continues and trade and investment protectionism start to grow, regional economic integration has become the common choice of many countries.Efforts to close the development gap and expand trade among members of ASEAN are key points of policy discussion. A good opportunity is businesses involving tourism, hotels and restaurants in ASEAN countries, which are growing rapidly. For example, the numbers of foreign tourists going to Cambodia and Laos rose by an average of 18% and 25% per year from 2000-11 respectively, according to the Nation newspaper. In Myanmar, the number of foreign tourists was expected to double in 2012 to 1.5 million.
In this panel, Anthropological researchers will discuss the Relation between Business Development and Local Society & Ethnic Culture. We will pay more attention to how the social and ethnic impact on local business development.