Last week marked the start of the year of the dragon throughout much of East Asia, but thousands of young people celebrated the Lunar New Year half a world away on college campuses across the United States. Chinese New Year, Spring Festival, and Tet celebrations have become increasingly common as the population of international students [...]
American volunteerism is expanding in Southeast Asia. The Peace Corps, a volunteer organization affiliated with the US government that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is growing beyond its traditional posts in the Philippines and Thailand to include active presence in Cambodia and Indonesia. Soon, American volunteers—not affiliated with the Corps—will also be active [...]
According to recently released figures from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Southeast Asian foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States is making a recovery from the effects of the Global Financial Crisis. While Southeast Asia’s FDI stock in the United States declined by 18 percent, or $4.9 billion, from $26.6 billion in [...]
Southeast Asia, when taken as a whole, imported $70.4 billion of US merchandise in 2010, a 61-percent increase from the 2001 figure of $43.8 billion. This signals a return to the upward trend in US merchandise exports to the region following the disruption of the Global Financial Crisis, when such exports fell from a high [...]
Southeast Asia will continue to grow more important for American companies operating in the region. Bolstered by improved global economic prospects and easing financing constraints, American companies are expecting increased profits, expanded business opportunities, and more hiring from the region over the next two years. For many American companies, the region’s major attraction is its [...]
Southeast Asia is an increasingly important player in the US seafood market. Although stagnant fish stocks, growing demand for seafood products, and chronic overfishing are constraining mature fishery sectors, such as the United States’, the same trends are bringing about opportunities for countries with developing fishery sectors that can pick up the slack in the [...]
Newly updated data from the Foreign Trade section of the US Census Bureau confirms that Southeast Asia, when taken as an entity, continues to be a major partner for US trade in goods. Over the last twenty years, US trade volume with Southeast Asia has tripled, from $45.9 billion in 1990 to $176 billion in [...]
Calling the project, “simple, readable, yet impressive,” Dr Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN, launched the ASEAN Matters for America project with Dr Satu Limaye, Director of the East-West Center in Washington, on Thursday, June 10, 2010, at the ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta. The project is also featured prominently on the Secretariat’s website. Dr. Surin was pleased [...]
On Monday, June 7, the ASEAN Matters for America/ America Matters for ASEAN project was formally launched in Southeast at the headquarters of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore. The project is a joint collaboration between the East-West Center in Washington and the ASEAN Studies Centre (ASC) at ISEAS. The East-West Center [...]
