Attitudes And Awareness Towards Asean

This report shares results of a regionwide survey undertaken in late 2007 among over 2,000 students from leading universities across ASEAN member countries. The survey addressed questions on whether youths today consider themselves to be citizens of ASEAN; whether the region's youth are enthusiastic or skeptical about ASEAN; how well the region's youth know ASEAN and its members; and their concerns for the Association and the region. Survey findings indicate a nascent sense of ownership and stake in ASEAN, despite some clear differences in knowledge and opinions on the grouping. It is interesting to note that the students agreed on the importance of economic cooperation and addressing poverty and development needs; and share a desire to know more about the region. Responses from the survey provide a useful source of information for ASEAN policy-makers on promoting awareness about ASEAN and the challenges and opportunities the region faces in pursuing regional integration.

An attempt will be made to provide explanations for China's initial negative reactions to ASEAN as well as to account for the change towards a more positive approach in later years. Discussion on the subject will be along the following lines; first, a brief comment on China's foreign policy objectives in Southeast Asia; secondly, an analysis of Chinese reactions to the formation of ASEAN in 1967; thirdly, Chinese attitudes towards the Association in the years following its establishment but preceding Peking's change in policy and, finally, an analysis of the factors which led to a more favorable approach to the Association.

In 2007, a survey - the first of its kind - was carried out to gauge young people's awareness of and attitudes towards ASEAN, following the decision by ASEAN heads of state and government to accelerate the date for accomplishing an integrated ASEAN Community by 2015. Views and attitudes from university undergraduates in the ten ASEAN member states who participated in the survey indicated a nascent sense of identification as citizens of the region as well as their priorities for important aspects of regional integration. An update to the 2007 survey was carried out in 2014-15 among the same target population but with an expanded scope of twenty-two universities and institutes of higher learning across the ten member states. In the updated survey we found that there are more ASEAN-positive attitudes region-wide, but there are also increases in ASEAN-ambivalent attitudes at country-level in some ASEAN members. Young people's priorities for important aspects of regional integration have also shifted away from economic cooperation to tourism and development cooperation. New questions in the latest survey also allow us to demonstrate the descriptive vocabulary and cognitive maps students hold for the region and its nations. This book details the key findings of the updated survey compared to the earlier survey. These include nation-by-nation results and a summary of region-wide trends, as well as what they suggest for the prospects of ASEAN integration beyond 2015. These are assessed in a chapter providing broad recommendations for policymakers and educators in the ASEAN member states.

This book is based on the outcomes of the International Comparative Study on Citizenship Education and Education for ASEANness in ASEAN Countries for the fiscal years 2010 to 2013. In each chapter, it analyzes the awareness of school students in a respective country, while also discussing the importance of the Delphi survey results, a major feature of this project, for educational experts on citizenship education. Examining citizenship education in ten countries, it clarifies which type of citizenship education should be completed after ten years, and what level of citizenship should be acquired in ten years. It also compares the awareness of students from these ten countries from 2010 to 2013. The book argues that citizenship education is indispensable for surviving the twenty-first century, especially in terms of promoting citizenship education in schools.

China and the ASEAN region have risen rapidly to a position of immense economic significance in the global economy. Academics, policy makers and businesses are all keen to understand more about taxation in China and ASEAN, and this work seeks to address this key issue by providing a comprehensive overview of the many often mentioned but little understood challenges of doing business in the region. Traversing a wide range of regional issues and jurisdictions, topics covered include the role of DTAs in regional integration, the impact of social institutions on tax, corruption and its causes, economic development and taxation and the use of education in developing systems. Case studies are taken from countries such as China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Drawing on the results of these discussions, the book also sheds light on the question of whether different taxing institutions are needed in the region. Gathering together a cross-disciplinary group of eminent scholars, this work will be of great interest to all students and scholars of Asian economics, Asian finance and taxation in general.

In 2007, a survey – the first of its kind – was carried out to gauge young people’s awareness of and attitudes towards ASEAN, following the decision by ASEAN heads of state and government to accelerate the date for accomplishing an integrated ASEAN Community by 2015. Views and attitudes from university undergraduates in the ten ASEAN member states who participated in the survey indicated a nascent sense of identification as citizens of the region as well as their priorities for important aspects of regional integration. An update to the 2007 survey was carried out in 2014–15 among the same target population but with an expanded scope of twenty-two universities and institutes of higher learning across the ten member states. In the updated survey, we found that there are more ASEAN-positive attitudes region-wide, but there are also increases in ASEAN-ambivalent attitudes at country-level in some ASEAN members. Young people’s priorities for important aspects of regional integration have also shifted away from economic cooperation to tourism and development cooperation. New questions in the latest survey also allow us to demonstrate the descriptive vocabulary and cognitive maps students hold for the region and its nations. This book details the key findings of the updated survey compared to the earlier survey. These include nation-by-nation results and a summary of region-wide trends, as well as what they suggest for the prospects of ASEAN integration beyond 2015. These are assessed in a chapter providing broad recommendations for policymakers and educators in the ASEAN member states.