Singapore and ASEAN in the New Regional Division of Labour

This paper examines the implications of international fragmentation of production for trade patterns of Singapore and the other ASEAN economies, with emphasis on their regional and global economic integration. The analysis reveals that the degree of dependence of these countries on this new global division labour is much larger compared to the other countries East Asia, Europe and North America. Network-related trade in parts and components has certainly strengthened economic interdependence among ASEAN countries and between ASEAN and other major economies in East Asia, but this has not lessoned the dependence of growth dynamism of these countries on the global economy. The operation of cross-border production networks depends inexorably on trade in final goods with North America and the European Union.