The Experiences of Existing Regional Cooperation Initiatives

Abstract

This chapter reviews the Southeast Asian experience in regional cooperation initiatives. Particularly relevant are the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program on the mainland of Southeast Asia and the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore—Growth Triangle. These initiatives have stimulated growth and likely have encouraged the participating countries to maintain smooth economic relations. Other regional programs have been less successful. Lessons learned include (i) the utility of exploiting cross-border resource complementarity and (ii) the importance of trade-encouraging infrastructure investment. These issues have been particularly difficult to address in programs in the archipelagic countries, where the economies show little complementarity and where physical connectivity has been limited, hindering trade and traffic.