RIETI-ERIA Session "Changing Global Situation and the Roles of ASEAN and Japan" (Handouts and Video)

Shujiro Urata is Chairman of the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). He is also Professor Emeritus, Waseda University, Senior Research Advisor, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Specially Appointed Fellow at the Japanese Centre for Economic Research (JCER), Visiting Fellow, Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO). Chairman Urata received his BA in Economics from Keio University, MA and Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University. He is a former Research Associate at the Brookings Institution (1978-81), an Economist at the World Bank (1981-86). He taught at Waseda University (1986-2020). He specializes in international economics and has published a number of books and articles on international economic issues. His recent books include Achieving Inclusive Growth in the Asia Pacific, co-editor, Australian National University Press, 2020, Enhancing SME Participation in Global Value Chains editor, Asian Development Bank Institute, 2021, The Effect of Globalisation on Firm and Labour Performance, co-editor, Routledge, 2021, Globalization and Its Economic Consequences: Looking at APEC Economies, co-editor. Routledge, 2021, Sustainable Development Disciplines for Humanity, co-editor, Springer, Singapore, 2022, Sustainable Development Disciplines for Society, co-editor, Springer, Singapore, 2022

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Choi Shing Kwok is the Director & CEO of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, which does research on the political, economic and socio-cultural developments in Southeast Asia. He is also the Chairman of SP Services Limited, an energy services company, Deputy Chairman of the ComfortDelGro Group, a global transportation company, and a board member of the St Andrew’s Mission Hospital, a medical charity. In addition, he also serves on the National Records Advisory Committee in the Ministry of Communications and Information, and the Management Board of the Singapore Nuclear Research & Safety Initiative in the National University of Singapore.
Before his retirement from the civil service in October 2017, Shing Kwok was the Permanent Secretary of the then Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) for 5 years. He also served 7 years as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Transport and 9 years as a senior official in the Ministry of Defence earlier in his career. During his military service, Shing Kwok held a variety of command and staff appointments in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). Promoted to Brigadier-General in 1996, he took early retirement from the SAF in 2000 to join the Administrative Service.
Shing Kwok obtained his Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Engineering Tripos from Cambridge University in 1981 and 1985 respectively. He also received a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard University in 1994 as an Edward Mason Fellow.
During his public sector career, Shing Kwok was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 1993 and the Meritorious Service Medal in 2000.

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Kitti is Professor of international relations at the Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University in Thailand. He is advisory committee for the International Studies Center (ISC) at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and used to serve as a strategic committee at the Thai Ministry of Defence (2014-19). Kitti is currently among the editorial board of the journal Global Studies Quarterly (published by the International Studies Association, U.S.).
Earning an M.A. from Keio University (Japan) and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, Kitti has a wide range of publications, including those on Japan-Southeast Asia relations, U.S.-Thailand alliance, ASEAN, and Thai politics. His recent interest is on soft power in East Asia and public diplomacy. He has recently been selected as a CPD-SIF Southeast Asia Fellow at the Center on Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California,
Kitti was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley, teaching “International Relations in Southeast Asia,” and gave lectures at various universities, such as ANU, Munich, Peking, Waseda, and Yonsei. He is regularly invited to speak, including at Columbia University, Nikkei Forum, Beijing Forum, Jeju Forum, the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA), and ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
His work experiences include Vice Rector for International Affairs (2018-2021) and Director at the Institute of East Studies (2013-2018) at the university. Kitti was director for the ASEAN Watch Project, funded by the then Thailand Research Fund (2011-2020). He served as an advisory committee, representing Thailand, of the Asia Center under the Japan Foundation (2015-2021).

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Fukunari KIMURA has been Professor, Faculty of Economics, Keio University since 2000, Chief Economist, ERIA since 2008, and Consulting Fellow, RIETI from 2018. He received his Bachelor of Laws from the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo in 1982 and Ph.D. from the Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1991. He worked for the Department of Economics, State University of New York at Albany as Assistant Professor in 1991-1994, and the Faculty of Economics, Keio University as Associate Professor in 1994-2000. He served as Dean, Graduate School of Economics, Keio University in 2015-2017. He majors in international trade and development economics. His major research topics include international production networks, economic integration, and the digital economy in East Asia.

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He is Professor of Faculty of Economics, Kyushu University. He received his Ph.D. from Hokkaido University. His research interests include ASEAN Economic Integration, East Asian Economic Integration and Economic Integration and Automobile Industry. He is the author of Intra-ASEAN Economic Cooperation, and edited ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and Japan and RCEP and East Asia. He is the Chairman of the ASEAN Study Group in Tokyo (ASGT), President of the Society for Industrial Studies, Japan (SISJ) and Vice President of the Japan Association for Asian Studies (JAAS).

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Professor Shandre M. Thangavelu is currently the Head (President) of Jeffrey Cheah Institute for Southeast Asia and Senior Fellow at Jeffrey Sachs Centre for Sustainable Development at Sunway University, Malaysia. He also holds a joint appointment at the Institute of International Trade, University of Adelaide, Australia. Currently, Professor Shandre Thangavelu is also the Trade Advisor to Ministry of Commerce, Kingdom of Cambodia from 2021.
Previously, Professor Shandre Thangavelu was appointed as the Head of Research at Ministry of Manpower under the Economist Service at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore from 2001 to 2009. Professor Shandre Thangavelu was also appointed into the Governing Board for the Work, Safety, Health Institute (WSHI) of Singapore. He is also the member of the Competition Commission Appeal Board in Singapore. Shandre Thangavelu was the Managing Editor for Asian Economic Journal (AEJ) in 2009 and currently appointed as the Editor in 2018. He was also appointed as the Fellow of Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) in 2017.
Professor Shandre Thangavelu is an active researcher on human capital development, technology transfer, foreign direct investment, trade, government infrastructure investment, productivity and economic growth. He has written extensively in ASEAN integration, FDI, human capital development, technology transfer and economic growth and has published his research in major international journals. He has written several books on trade, investment, integration and outsourcing in Asia. He has also worked on several international projects commissioned by UNDP, World Bank, ASEAN Secretariat, APEC, and Asian Productivity Organization (APO). Currently, he is working on human capital dynamics and FDI activities in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam and Indonesia. Professor Shandre Thangavelu obtained his graduate degrees from Queen’s University, Canada.

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Dionisius Narjoko received his PhD in Economics from the Australian National University. His dissertation was awarded The Ann Bates Postgraduate Prize for Indonesian Studies 2006. His research covers industrialisation in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, economic integration in ASEAN and East Asia (focusing on ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint and regional economy architecture), and topics in economic development, such as small and medium enterprises, and interrelationship between human capital and economic growth.
As part of his role in ERIA, Dr Narjoko provides evidence-based policy recommendations to a number of ASEAN Member States on topics related to AEC or regional integration in general. Dr Narjoko is also active in ‘second-track’ policy discussion for various topics, extending the link from his previous affiliation with the Jakarta-based think-tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Dr Narjoko also once taught at the Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia. He co-authored and co-edited books and published book chapters, policy papers, and articles in peer-reviewed journals in the past ten years. He also serves as Associate Editor of Asian Economic Journal and Jurnal Ekonomi Pembangunan Indonesia.

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Dr. Mie Oba is Professor at the Faculty of Law, Kanagawa University. She obtained her M.A and Ph.D at the University of Tokyo. Her major is International Relations and the politics in East Asia and Asia-Pacific, especially the development of regionalism in this region, Japan’s policy in terms of regionalism and relationship between Japan and Southeast Asia. She has a lot of articles and books both in Japanese and English, and received The 21st Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Prize (2005) and the 11th Nakasone Yasuhiro Incentive Award(2015).

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Thitinan Pongsudhirak is Professor of International Relations at Chulalongkorn University’s faculty of political science and Senior Fellow at its Institute of Security and International Studies in Bangkok. He completed degrees at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, with a PhD from London School of Economics which won the UK’s best dissertation prize. Thitinan has held visiting positions at Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, University of Victoria in New Zealand, and Yangon University, and currently serves on several editorial boards of academic journals, including Journal of Democracy. He has authored a host of articles, books, book chapters and over 1,000 opinion articles in mass media such as Project Syndicate, The Bangkok Post, The Straits times, Nikkei Asian Review, South China Morning Post, International New York times, and Financial Times. As an analyst on Thailand/ASEAN-Southeast Asia, his comments and views have appeared regularly in international media, including CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, Aljazeera, NHK, among others. Prior to his academic and think-tank career, Thitinan worked at The Nation newspaper in Bangkok and the BBC World Service and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in London. His current work focuses on the comparative politics and geopolitics/geoeconomics of ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific in view of the US-China rivalry and competition. In 2015, he was awarded a prize for excellence in opinion writing from Society of Publishers in Asia; in March 2018, he was appointed ASEAN@50 Fellow by New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs & Trade; and in May 2019, he was selected as Australia-ASEAN Fellow at Sydney’s Lowy Institute.

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Ms Sharon Seah is Senior Fellow and Coordinator of ASEAN Studies Centre and the Climate Change in Southeast Asia Programme at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. Prior to academia, Ms Seah spent 15 years in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore and the National Environment Agency. Her research interests are in ASEAN, multilateralism, rule of law, and climate change. Ms Seah graduated with a Master in Public and International Law from the University of Melbourne in 2018. She is co-editor of 50 Years of ASEAN and Singapore (World Scientific: 2017) and editor of Building a New Legal Order for the Oceans (NUS Press: 2019) for Tommy Koh. She is also the lead author of The State of Southeast Asia Survey Report and the Southeast Asia Climate Outlook Survey.

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TANG Siew Mun is Director of the Political and Security Directorate at the ASEAN Secretariat. He was previously Head of the ASEAN Studies Centre at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, where he was concurrently Senior Fellow at the Regional Strategic and Political Studies programme. He was Managing Editor of ASEANFocus and led the State of Southeast Asia 2019 and 2020 surveys. His primary research interests are Asian security, ASEAN’s relations with the major powers and Japanese foreign policy. Before his appointment at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, he was Director for Foreign Policy and Security Studies at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia and Senior Lecturer at the National University of Malaysia (UKM). He holds a Ph.D. from Arizona State University in Political Science, Master of Arts in International Studies from the Claremont Graduate University, Master of Arts in War Studies from King’s College London and Bachelor of Social Sciences and Humantities (Hons.) in Political Science from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

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