Background

The theme of the 2009 Roundtable reflected the current challenges ASEAN faces. The global economic and financial crisis — probably the worst the world has witnessed in the last 100 years — has spared none of the major economic regions. Stock markets have fallen, and GDP growth numbers have been severely downgraded. The impact is now being felt on employment, consumer spending and inflation, with deflationary effects in many countries. Asia, where two of the biggest developing economies — China and India — are located, is also experiencing the consequences of the crisis. As most of the countries in developing Asia are significantly export-oriented, the impact of the slowdown in the United States (U.S.), the European Union (EU) countries and Japan has resulted in sharp contractions in several ASEAN economies in the last few quarters. While governments have undertaken policy changes and several measures to soften the blow and support employment and consumer spending, the effect of these measures are not yet fully evident. However, with the recent emergence of “green shoots” of recovery, financial markets seem to have rallied. The positive news on U.S. financial institutions and the onset of an apparent stimulus to the Chinese economy have benefited ASEAN. It still remains to be seen whether the present situation points to genuine recovery and whether growth could be realistically expected to return to the pre-crisis levels of mid-2007. ASEAN should thus be ready with a preventive coordinated approach to boost economic growth and ease worries on the impact of the crisis.

These sobering thoughts, shared by Ambassador K. Kesavapany, Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), set the tone for the ASEAN Roundtable 2009, held on 18 June 2009 with the theme “The Global Economic Crisis: Implications for ASEAN”. It was jointly organized by the ASEAN Studies Centre at ISEAS with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) at Pan Pacific Hotel, Singapore. KAS has partnered with ISEAS in organizing annual ASEAN Roundtables for the past seven years. The themes of the roundtables address topical issues on ASEAN's agenda, and the outcomes are published as policy reports.

The 2009 Roundtable aimed to study the impact of the current global economic crisis on ASEAN members and its community-building process, assessing it through the lens of regional security, economy and finance, and the social impact.