• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2018

This research aims to evaluate the current state of technology of enterprises in Vietnam in comparison with several countries in the AEC economic community, thereby to propose several recommendations to Vietnamese enterprises in order able to promote technology innovation activities, create competitiveness with enterprises in the region. Qualitative research methods are used through statistics and comparative descriptions from data collected from various sources: WEF, World Bank, CIEM, General Statistic Office. The study results show that Vietnamese enterprises still have many limitations in technology, originated from their small business scale (capital and labor), the current research capacity is still low, the funding for this activity is not high and the accessibility of the capital is still difficult. According to the Global Competitiveness Index, Vietnam's science and technology indexes are low compared to other AEC-developed countries including the availability of the latest technology; the acquisition of technology at the enterprise level; the capacity of improvement; quality of scientific research organizations..., which shall be a major barrier for Vietnamese enterprises to have to overcome to be able to create the competitiveness when entering the global market. From then on, the authors proposed solutions for two subjects, enterprises and government, to help Vietnamese enterprises to overcome this barrier.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3647-3650
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• 2016

Background: Colorectal cancer is one of the major health problems worldwide. However, limited studies have been reported from ASEAN countries. This study was conducted to evaluate clinical characteristics and survival of colorectal cancer cases aged <65 years and ${\geq}65$ years in the central region of Thailand. Materials and Methods: Clinical information, histological features, endoscopic findings and treatment outcome were collected and reviewed from Thammasat University Hospital, Pathumthani, Thailand between November 2011 and October 2015. Results: A total of 121 colorectal cancer patients, comprising 69 men and 52 women with a mean age of 65.8 years, were included. There were 57 aged <65 years and 64 aged ${\geq}65$ years. Common presenting symptoms were abdominal pain (37%), weight loss (34%) and anemia (32%). Mean duration of symptoms prior to diagnosis was 173 days. However, longer diagnosis time was demonstrated in patients aged <65 years than age more than ${\geq}65$ years (119.4 vs 58.4 days, P-value=0.30). Colonic fungating mass was the most common endoscopic finding (64.4%) and the location was significantly more commonly left than right side of the colon, both in younger and elderly groups (87.7% vs 12.3%, P=0.02 and 70.3% vs 29.7%, P=0.02, respectively). Adenocarcinoma with moderated differentiated was the most common histology (67.3%). More than half of the patients presented with advanced stage (28.9% with TNM stage 3 and 38.8% TNM stage 4, respectively). Overall 1-year and 5-year survival rates were 76.9% and 5%. Conclusions: Most colorectal cancer patients in Thailand have adenocarcinomas and present at advanced stage with poor prognosis. Screening of high risk patients and early detection might be essential factors to improve the treatment outcome and overall survival rate of colon cancer patients in Thailand and other ASEAN countries.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.135-178
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• 2010

This study is to seek alternatives for regional governance related to transnational labor migration issues in Southeast Asia. This study examined the present situation and trends of labor migration in the region, reviewed involved transnational issues, and identified the current issues of governance to seek alternatives for regional governance. The increase in cross-border labor migration is no doubt a sign of growth and dynamism of the region and greater integration of their economies. But it also poses complex policy and management issues as well as transnational issues over such as unequal economic profits, illegal migration, human rights, and social security issues. In this reality, regional governance is a very important theme and the efforts to manage their migration inherently involve fundamental conflict and tension between related countries and regions. However, politics and governance of transnational migrant workers in Southeast Asia are still pursued at the national level. To resolve these issues, it is urgently required to secure not only collaboration between the parties concerned but also governance at the regional level. Findings of this study are: First, although labor migration has been a relatively long-time transnational issue, the history of addressing the issue at the regional governance is very short and still inceptive. Second, given its size, labor migration in Southeast Asia requires effective regional governance but no breakthrough was possible due to the conflict of interests between origin and destination countries and the conflict of logic between the labor market and the state. Third, the issue of labor migration is an important element for the formation of economic and socio-cultural communities the ASEAN countries have pursued. Fourth, it is urgently needed to seek alternatives for good and effective regional governance as a key to resolving these issues over migrant workers in Southeast Asia.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.7-34
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• 2018

Finding distinguishing characteristics of Southeast Asia has proven to be a significant challenge: by focusing on the encounters which primarily colonial British writers had with the region's state rulers, it becomes possible to recover the early conceptualizations of regional governance. The writings of Henry Yule, Anna Leonowens, Sir George Scott, and Hugh Clifford all document the "orientalist" features of Western discourses because these writers at once were affected by it as they contributed to it. The discourse about royalty and rulers was central to many of the tropes associated with orientalism, but also with 'ornamentalism'. David Cannadine has shown that ornamentalism (in which British conceptualized many imperial practices in relation to their own hierarchical conceptions of society) was as critical a feature of imperial outlook as was orientalism. The need to understand ruling elites was at the heart of the imperialist project. Tracing the ways in which colonizing powers represented the region's ruling elite offers a new avenue for recognizing the affinities of the regional experience. Beyond orientalism, the paper explores questions about the representation and presentation of authority. Understanding the conceptualizations of rulers is connected to the comprehension of social organization-including representations of "traditional society."

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.57-78
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• 2015

Southeast Asia has been a showcase for democratic transitions in the past 30 years. This paper proposes a conceptual lens for studying political shifts in the Southeast Asian region. The argumentative storyline follows two fundamental propositions about democratic transitions. My first proposition is that during democratic transitions, human phenomena arise on nested analytical layers namely the global arena, the state, prodemocracy movements, and individuals. Each layer is conventionally studied by international relations, political science, sociology, and psychology respectively. I propose a multidisciplinary lens that transverses all these analytical layers. A second proposition is that during political shifts, social conditions are historically-situated. Historicity is anchored on stages of democratization, namely the authoritarian regime, toppling the regime, power shift, state building, and nation building. This paper describes a 4 × 5 matrix (analytical layer × historical stage) that may guide a regional agenda on the empirical study of democratic transitions in the Southeast Asian region. It likewise gives examples of research findings in Philippine-based studies that have already begun to provide empirical data about segments of this research matrix.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-25
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• 2009

The diversity of Southeast Asian culture and society has been made by two factors: geopolitical environment and colonialism. The geopolitical position of the region between China Seas and Indian Ocean has made it possible that diverse cultures from Northeast Asia especially China and India, Middle East and Europe have flowed into the region. The fact that Southeast Asia was colonized by various European nations has provided additional diversity. The diversity manifests itself most clearly in the culture of Southeast Asia which has various layers: On the bottom lay the indigenous one, and above it Chinese and Indian and Islamic cultures and finally European one.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.121-146
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• 2016

Defining key characteristics of Southeast Asia requires historical interpretation. Southeast Asia is a diverse and complicated region, but some of modern history's "grand narratives" serve to unify its historical experience. At a minimum, the modern history of the region involves decisive encounters with universal religions, the rise of Western colonialism, the experience of world wars, decolonization, and the end of the "cycle of violence". The ability of the region's peoples to adapt to these many challenges and successfully build new nations is a defining feature of Southeast Asia's place in the global stage. This paper will begin with a question: is it possible to develop a hermeneutic of "expedience" as a way to interpret the region's history? That is, rather than regard the region from a purely Western, nationalist, "internalist" point of view, it would be useful to identify a new series of interpretative contexts from which to begin scholarly analysis. In order to contextualize this discussion, the paper will draw upon the writings of figures who explored the region before knowledge about it was shaped by purely colonist or nationalist enterprises. To this end, particular attention will be devoted to exploring some of John Furnivall's ways of conceptualizing Southeast Asia. Investigating Furnivall, a critic of colonialism, will be done in relation to his historical situation. Because Furnivall's ideas have played a pivotal role in the interpretation of Southeast Asia, the paper will highlight the intellectual history of the region in order to ascertain the value of these concepts for subsequent historical interpretation. Ultimately, the task of interpreting the region's history requires a framework which will move beyond the essentializing orientalist categories produced by colonial scholarship and the reactionary nation-building narratives which followed. Instead, by beginning with a mode of historical interpretation that focuses on the many realities of expedience which have been necessary for the region's peoples, it may be possible to write a history which highlights the extraordinarily adaptive quality of Southeast Asia's populations, cultures, and nations. To tell this story, which would at once highlight key characteristics of the region while showing how they developed through historical encounters, would go a long way to capturing Southeast Asia's contribution's to global development.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.117-148
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• 2022

The full impact of COVID-19 has yet to be felt: while it may not define the new decade, it is clear that its immediate significance was to test many of the basic operating assumptions and procedures of global civilization. Even as vaccines are developed and utilized and even as it is possible to see the beginning of the end of COVID-19 as a discrete historical event, it remains unclear as to its ultimate importance. That said, it is evident that the academic exploration of Southeast Asia will also be affected by both the global and regional experiences of the pandemic. "Breakthroughs of Area Studies and ASEAN in the Era of Homo Untact" promises to help reconceptualize the study of the region by highlighting the importance of redefined spatial relationships and new potentially depersonalized modes of communication. This paper acknowledges these issues by suggesting that the transformations caused by the pandemic should motivate scholars to raise new questions about how to understand humanity-particularly as it is defined by societies, nations and regions. Given that COVID-19 (and the response to it) has altered many of the fundamental rhythms of globalized regions, there is sufficient warrant for re-examining both the ways in which disease, health and their related spaces affect the perceptions of Southeast Asia. To achieve "breakthroughs" into the investigation of the region, it makes sense to have another glance at the ways in which the discourses about diseases and health may have helped to inscribe definitions of Southeast Asia-or, at the very least, the nations, societies and peoples who live within it. In order to at least consider these larger issues, the discussion will concentrate on a formative moment in the conceptualization of Southeast Asia-British engagement with the region in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. To that end three themes will be highlighted: (1) the role that British diplomatic and military narratives played in establishing the information priorities required for the construction of colonial knowledge; (2) the importance not only of "colonial knowledge" but information making in its own right; (3) in anticipation of the use of big data, the manner in which manufactured information (related to space and disease) could function in shaping early British perceptions of Southeast Asia-particularly in Batavia and Java. This discussion will suggest that rather than see social distancing or increased communication as the greatest outcome of COVID-19, instead it will be the use of data-that is, big, aggregated biometric data which have not only shaped responses to the pandemic, but remain likely to produce the reconceptualization of both information and knowledge about the region in a way that will be at least as great as that which took place to meet the needs of the "New Imperialism." Furthermore, the definition and articulation of Southeast Asia has often reflected political and security considerations. Yet, the experience of COVID-19 could prove that data and security are now fused into a set of interests critical to policy-makers. Given that the pandemic should accelerate many existing trends, it might be foreseen these developments will herald the triumph of homo indicina: an epistemic condition whereby the human subject has become a kind of index for its harvestable data. If so, the "breakthroughs" for those who study Southeast Asia will follow in due course.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.133-148
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• 2017

In spite of being one of the first countries in Asia to establish an institution devoted to the study of the Asian region, area studies in the Philippines has languished over the years. In contrast, area studies programs of her neighbors have grown by leaps and bounds, invigorated by both public and private support. This observation becomes more glaring as Filipino scholars have made a name for themselves in the field of Southeast Asian Studies abroad. The paper is an appraisal of the current state of Southeast Asian area studies and the extent of its operation by the Philippines' top four universities, namely: the Asian Center of the University of the Philippines, the Ateneo de Manila University, the De La Salle University, and the University of Santo Tomas. Starting from the inception of area studies in the mid-1950s leading to a template patterned after the North American - European model, the paper then describes the challenges and its decline in the 80s toward its progression on a paradigm defined by the growing importance of, and actors within, the region. The paper expresses the view that one, the role of the government was both a boon and a bane in the development of area studies; and two, that the rapid economic growth and immense integration in the region in the last two decades gave a new impetus to Southeast Asian area studies, an enormous opportunity to capitalize on for Philippine universities.

• Maritime Security
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.141-185
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• 2021

The growing U.S.-China rivalry has placed the countries of Southeast Asia in exceedingly precarious positions. The Republic of Korea (ROK) likewise has been tasked with the challenge of "navigating the waters" between deepening geopolitical divides. It is in this context that the "New Southern Policy" (hereafter NSP) has become a key word in Korea's foreign policy circles. Through NSP, ROK aims to diversify its economic and security interests by strengthening ties with its southern partners, focusing on three key areas (termed as the "3 Ps"): People, Prosperity, and Peace. At the same time, the NSP seeks cooperation with other key diplomatic agendas such as the U.S.'s "Free and Open Indo-Pacific," rendering it crucial for the overall stability of the region. Considering such strategic significance, deeper analysis of the policy is more timely than ever. A brief assessment of the policy's outcome so far, however, reveals that relatively, the "Peace" pillar has been insufficient in achieving satisfactory outcomes. Here, this paper asks the question of: 1) How can the "Peace" pillar of South Korea's New Southern Policy be strengthened? Based on an analysis on the causes of the "Peace" pillar's weakness, this paper identifies counter-piracy cooperation as a solution. This paper then proceeds to answer the next question of: 2) How can ROK and ASEAN cooperate on counter-piracy, and how can these efforts be integrated into ROK's NSP? To answer the above question, this paper conducts in-depth case studies on ASEAN's and ROK's approaches to counter-piracy and identifies specific mechanisms of cooperation. In Chapter I, the paper begins with an overview of the NSP's strategic significance and an evaluation of its "Peace" pillar. Chapter II conducts a literature review on the causes of, and prescriptions for, the weakness of the "Peace" pillar. The paper then justifies why counter-piracy may be a solution. Chapter III examines ASEAN's and ROK's approaches to counter-piracy. By analyzing the general framework and each region's cases, the paper displays the strengths and weaknesses of each region's piracy responses. Based on this analysis, Chapter IV suggests ways to incorporate counter-piracy cooperation into the "Peace" pillar of the NSP. This research bears significance in that it identifies a specific area of cooperation (counter-piracy) to strengthen the "Peace" pillar of ROK's NSP. Such identification is based on a comprehensive study into the two parties' past and current experience in counter-piracy, making it contextual in nature. Furthermore, the study suggests practical mechanisms of cooperation, and considers ways of incorporation into the existing framework of NSP. This approach differs from existing literature that failed to generate case-specific, policy-oriented solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated piracy issues and deepened geopolitical divides. Turbulent seas such as these call for careful navigation. When it comes to promoting "peace," the key lies in combating the pirates that sail those very waters.