Overview of development gaps in Southeast Asia: Gaps between ASEAN -6 and CLM V countries

Narrowing social disparities and economic development gaps between countries are key challenges facing ASEAN as it works towards its endgoal of an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. Member countries differ in their levels of development, political systems, investment environments and economic structures. Their domestic agendas also often take precedence over regional integration. This chapter is designed to provide direction and focus for policy makers at the regional and country level. Accordingly, it examines the development differences and disparities in ASEAN, particularly between the prosperous, more highly developed group of countries (the ASEAN-6) and the more recent, less developed member countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam (CLMV). To that end it uses the Narrowing Development Gaps Indicator (NDGI), recently designed by the OECD Development Centre and the ASEAN Secretariat to measure progress, or lack thereof, in closing development gaps between countries and over time. The NDGI encompasses six policy areas – infrastructure, human resource development, information and communication technology (ICT), trade and investment (regional economic integration), tourism and poverty. The first, introductory, section of this chapter offers an overview of the social and economic development gaps that ASEAN must narrow before it can achieve full integration. It describes how the NDGIs were built and how they are used. The second section looks at development gaps in each policy area, considers government action to date, and suggests new and additional measures that should be taken. The third section concludes.