DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION: FACTORS, FEATURES AND THE CURRENT STATE
Keywords:
ASEAN, Asia-Pacific region, APEC, international economic integration, open and closed regionalismAbstract
The paper concerns the features and the current state of the development of international economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region and focuses on basic integrating and disintegrating factors that affect the development of economic integration. The article aims at researching the features of implementation of two opposite conceptions of international economic integration in the APR - open and closed regionalism in the format of the most advanced integration associations - the Association of South-East Asia and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. The authors have carried out a comparative analysis of the performance and current state of the development of the above mentioned associations. In particular, the paper reflects the reasons for the establishment of the ASEAN and the APEC, their goals and objectives of development; reviews the signed agreements, plans and programs, challenges in the development of these integration organizations as well as measures to overcome them; outlines the achieved results of integration cooperation and priorities of development.
The paper centers on the analysis of the degree of the ASEAN and the APEC homogeneity according to the development level of their member states and shows the heterogeneity of the associations based on the calculation of the magnitude of the coefficient of variation of GDP per capita and the coefficient of variation of GDP in the ASEAN and the APEC. The ASEAN is characterized by less heterogeneity in comparison with the APEC.
The paper also analyzes the participation of these integration associations in international trade and in direct investment flows.
The research shows that at present the Asia-Pacific region is characterized by a deepening of economic cooperation between the states, multi-level nature of international economic integration, predominance of subregional integration over the region-wide, the use of soft forms of integration.
