Title: Export competitiveness of commercial services: the ASEAN-5 experience

Authors: Amir Mahmood

Addresses: Faculty of Business and Law, University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia

Abstract: This paper evaluates the challenges and opportunities confronted by five major members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN-5). The structural transformation of ASEAN-5 is being assessed by examining the role of services in value added, trade and employment. The issue of ASEAN-5 export competitiveness in services is tackled by analysing the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) indices for transport, travel, insurance and financial services. Also, this paper evaluates the members| service trade liberalisation scorecard. This paper contends that, apart from the external trading environment, industry, firm and delivery mode-specific factors play an important role in shaping firms| decisions to export.

Keywords: ASEAN-5; Association of Southeast Asian Nations; export competitiveness; commercial services; value added; trade; employment; exports; transport services; travel services; insurance services; financial services; trade liberalisation.

DOI: 10.1504/JGBA.2010.034503

Journal for Global Business Advancement, 2010 Vol.3 No.3, pp.243 - 256

Published online: 05 Aug 2010 *

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