Introduction to Services and GVC Activities ASEAN and East Asia

Services supply chains are becoming an important driver of trade and growth in the ASEAN and Asia region. In particular, the value adding activities within the supply chain are critical to fully exploit their potential in the region. Increasingly, we are observing supply-chain activities in services independent of their linkages to the manufacturing supply-chain activities. For example, the development of services sectors such as education, business services, wholesale activities, etc, are part of supply chains independent of the manufacturing sector. The key rationale of the growth of the supply-chain activities is that there are ample opportunities for countries at various stages of growth to be able to participate. Thus, it is important to examine the key fundamentals that might be needed for countries in various stages of growth to participate effectively in services supply chains. This book intends to study activities of the services supply chains in the region. In particular, the research is also expected to contribute to the understanding of supply-chain activities and their implications for the multilateral FTAs such as Regional Cooperative Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement.