Hong Kong's growing ties with ASEAN countries to have
greater impact in years to come

ASIA has witnessed an increase in integration in recent decades, evidenced by strong intra-regional trade and capital flows, negotiated trade agreements, the formation of trade blocs and, more recently, the Belt and Road Initiative.
These developments are highly relevant and important to Hong Kong, which is expected to grow with the region by facilitating trade and investment between China and ASEAN economies, and by providing trade-related fundraising and business services.
Bilateral trade between Hong Kong and other Asian countries has ballooned in recent years.  >More
 

How intra-Asian growth can influence your logistics strategic
outlook in 2016

MANY have called this period "the Asian Century," and continued economic growth is a major component in terms of fulfilling that potential, writes Stacy Hylton in the blog of the Capital Distribution Services, a division of Hitachi Transport System Group.
"Consider that according to the Shipping Gazette, annual trade between the Associated Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China has grown by 10 per cent annually since 2008," she writes.
Compare this figure to an increase of just one per cent annually since 2008 in container exports from China to the US and Europe, and it becomes clear what all the fuss is about.  >More
 

Where we are, how we got there and what we must do to
effect intra-Asian free trade

THERE are stresses on the performance of Factory Asia that block intra-Asia free trade, write economists Masahiro Kawai and Ganeshan Wignaraja in their Asia Development Bank Institute Working Paper. Most notable, they say, are the consequences of the global financial crisis, the risk of protectionism, the persistence of residual behind-the-border regulatory barriers and the failure to conclude ambitious WTO multilateral trade negotiations as well as the relative exclusion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Over the last three decades, the East Asian economies, they say, have substantially liberalised foreign trade and direct investment (FDI) regimes within the frameworks of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).  >More
 

India rail freight fixing India's overland congestion would do
wonders for intra-Asian trade

A MAJOR obstacle to full and smoothly functioning of intra-Asian trade flows is the state of India's vast but often crumbling roads and railways and roads.
While inadequate, today's problem with railway infrastructure is largely bureauicratic. Once one surmounts the institutional barriers, one can at least access its vast under utlilised capacity.
Today, the rail share of domestic freight transport is 18 per cent, while it can rise to 25 per cent, according to P Mano writing a Live Mint commentary in the Hindustani Times. And by 2025, railways stand to save India INR30 billion - INR60 billion (US$2.9 billion to $5.8 billion) a year in logistics costs. >More