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During her speech in exploreASEAN Preparatory Seminar, Regula had brought up an everlasting issue in Southeast Asia which is the plastic leakage into the ocean. The area is a major contributor to land-based plastic waste leaking into the world’s oceans, with more than half of it coming from four nations, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand, along with China, the top single polluter, which has been worsening due to the global pandemic. 

Regula is Circulate Capital’s Managing Director of Asia. She leads the investment strategy, manages the investment team, and oversees Circulate Capital Ocean Fund’s investment portfolio in South and Southeast Asia. She further established a social enterprise in the Philippines, developing sustainable housing technologies, establishing production and construction of affordable housing solutions in collaboration with urban poor communities and civil society organizations in Southeast Asia. 

During the time at our seminar, Regular had delivered to the participants an insightful speech about the mentioned issue in the region along with the effect of COVID-19. Many countries in Southeast Asia have been struggling with poor waste sorting and disposal systems, and their growth in population and explosive demand for consumer products mean more single-use plastic ends up in landfills or leaks into the environment.

Globally, COVID-19 has touched every business and community in a variety of ways. In Southeast Asia specifically, more plastics are being used as people started ordering food when they could not go out to eat. Moreover, the pandemic has impacted the poor of the poor, said Regula in her presentation. A study by circular economy consultancy GA Circular has found that lockdowns and COVID-19 prevention measures may have done permanent damage to the recycling sector in South and Southeast Asia. The recycling trade in these regions has been already struggling with poor infrastructure, labor shortages, and non-competitively priced recycled plastic before the pandemic hit, and the virus has exacerbated these issues, in some countries almost wiping out the sector.

According to Regula, we all have a role to play to help critical industries ensure the long-term resilience of the community in these countries. And to tackle plastic consumption and bring it back to the Circular Economy we all need to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, interventions are needed across the recycling value chain to support it to overcome the current challenges it is facing, prevent increased plastic population, and protect livelihoods: 

•  Double down on financing 

Regula stated that it is of utmost importance in the industries globally and also in Southeast Asia is to invest in double down on financing the plastic recycling value chain.  

• Commit to buy recycle materials

Brand owners need to commit to buy recycled materials and provide guarantees for offtake. Most of the international corporations in the food industries or consumption industry commit to recycle content by 2025 – 2030. 

• Refine existing grant programs

Philanthropic actors in emerging markets such as the Southeast Asia region are extremely important. It’s not just about investing but about building an ecosystem for the entire community. There’s a need for tremendous education in the early stage towards children: How consumption of plastic can change their lives to refine existing grant programs to support waste pickers. 

• Recognize the recycling value chain 

Governments should recognize the recycling value chain as an essential service and play a key role in driving the necessary policies either to prevent plastics usage or even to enable and allow companies to be able to use recycled contents. 

The impacts of COVID-19 on the plastic recycling value chain in South and Southeast Asia would last long after the pandemic is over. Investment in the waste and recycling industry is needed more than ever. The problem not only demands action from organizations, companies globally and locally, but also the implementation of government policies as well as the awareness of the population to work together to build up a sustainable living environment in the region.

After years of tricky negotiations 15 countries including China signed a major trade deal, creating a regional bloc that covers around a third of global economic output and extends Beijing’s influence. This is posing an early challenge to President-elect Joe Biden as he is formulating his administration’s trade policies.

The trade deal is called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and covers a third of the global economic output.  The bloc includes many of the largest economies in the Asia-Pacific region. Apart from China, it includes Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and 10 Southeast Asian nations.

The pact will result in a more unified trading system which will minimize trading costs in the area. Therefore, it is expected to boost the global economy and help the countries better fight the economic hit from the pandemic.

The United States are not part of the deal even though they have the world’s largest economy. They were part of another deal called the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) which didn’t include Beijing and was aimed in part at countering China’s growing clout. The United States pulled out of this multilateral trade pact under the Trump administration, increasing the pressure on Biden to deepen U.S. trade engagement in the Asia-Pacific region. He commented that he wants to rally allies in order to create a more forceful policy to confront China before signing the deal.

After several years of growing trade tensions, particularly between the U.S. and China which raised questions about the future of globalisation, a ceremony was held online where the 15 Nations representatives signed the pact.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that the signing showed that multilateralism and free trade “still represent the right direction of the world economy and mankind.”

The negotiation of the deal took 8 years and the challenge was mainly to balance the interests of countries at varying stages of development. India for example withdrew from the deal last year because they were concerned that the deal would lead to a flood of imports but even without India the population of the countries which are part of the deal equals roughly a third of humanity.

HA NOI, 23 October 2020 – The General Statistics Office (GSO) Viet Nam, in collaboration with ASEANstats and supported by the ARISE Plus Project, convened in a virtual conference to launch the ASEAN SDG Indicators Baseline Report 2020 and the ASEAN Online Database for SDG Indicators. 

 
As the role of ASEAN Statistical Chairman in 2020, Vietnam has proposed the initiative “Establishing the statistical information system on sustainable development of ASEAN”. This initiative has received the consensus and actively participated in the implementation of all ASEAN member countries. 

The inaugural ASEAN report on SDG indicators aims to establish the baseline information of the SDGs being tracked and measured in the region to aid the monitoring of progress in achieving the global agenda as well as supporting relevant policy making at the national and regional levels. This report presents the data for ASEAN and the AMS as gathered and compiled by the NSSs and the NSOs in the region from 2016 – 2018. 

Director General of GSO Vietnam Dr. Nguyen Thi Huong opened the event, along with Ambassador of the European Union to ASEAN Igor Driesmans and Director of the ASEAN Integration Monitoring Directorate of the ASEAN Secretariat Julia Tijaja who all gave their opening remarks. 

Dr. Julia Tijaja speaking out of the ASEAN Community’s vision to 2025 has complemented the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development with efforts to improve the living standards of people in the ASEAN community. This is reflected in the Blueprint 2025 of the ASEAN Economic Community and Socio-Cultural Community, which is committed to achieving sustainable socio-economic development of ASEAN. Mr. Igor Driesmans has shown a great appreciation for the Early Report, emphasizing that the SDG indicators play an important role in making policies for sustainable development of member countries. This is also an important tool to ensure the transparency of statistical indicators. 

The SDGs are based on 6 themes including: dignity, people, planet, partnership, justice and prosperity. The SDGs are more comprehensive than the MDGs and include 17 goals, defined by 169 specific goals and 232 indicators. These goals go beyond social development, including the goals for climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace, equity… These goals are reciprocally connecting and being successful in one goal will often solve problems in another area. 

ACSS conveyed its appreciation to the ASEAN Regional Integration Support by the European Union (ARISE) Plus Project for their support in improving statistical capacity in AMS and the ASEAN Secretariat. 

 
The ASEAN SDG Indicators Baseline Report 2020 is available at https://www.aseanstats.org/publication/asean-sdg-report-2020/ 
The Online Database for ASEAN SDG Indicators is accessible at https://data.aseanstats.org/sdg 

Improving the life of citizens through connectivity

The countries within the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are some of the most dynamic regions in the world. Due to the rapid economic growth in this area, acting in a smart way is a key factor for long-term success. Being the fastest growing internet market in the world, ASEAN’s digital economy is particularly influential. As by-product of their strong economic growth, the region today faces many challenges related to sustainability, such as reduced air and water quality as well as waste management issues. Therefore, sustainable business practices are now progressively being prioritized.

Singapore is a prime example of the economic relevance and strength of this region. In 1965 it gained its independence and started to open their policies as well as their borders and adopted an outward looking economic strategy. This eventually resulted in an increase of imports and exports and therefore, the city-state became an internationally competitive player despite its size.

Smart Singapore

Singapore is a pioneering city which is continuously deploying new technologies in order to improve the quality of life for its citizens. The state’s approach is focusing on a broad scale when it comes to technological innovations, while focusing on its force as a nation.

The Smart Nation initiative was launched by the Government in 2014. The initiative included the purchase of services from technology start-ups, to make that data available on government portals. The goal includes the extension of public transport networks and ensures a secure but open data marketplace. This data can be used for urban and operational planning and maintenance with the introduction of cashless payment options on a large scale.

Singapore’s response to the pandemic

The response to the global pandemic of Singapore is based on the Smart Nation Initiative, which provides an ideal foundation for the measures. On this basis the government was able to develop further targeted concepts to control the spread of the Virus. Furthermore, the State was able to adapt, implement and monitor the changes quick and with almost no complications. This is also felt by it’s citizens like Chrys Francisco Laguitao, Senior UX Designer at Google Singapore, who observed an easy transition at her company to working remotely. “The fast and accessible internet as well as the available digital tools have made this conversion possible with almost no technical difficulties.”

An example of an innovation that is used in Singapore’s biggest public parks are robot dogs. These robot dogs have several distinctive abilities like a sound system to broadcast safety messages to visitors as well as tracking the number of visitors to avoid crowding.

Robot dogs are obviously just one creative solution amongst many in order to keep the virus in check. The most widespread technology amongst the citizens are apps like SafeEntry or TraceTogether, which store data about their users in order to facilitate the tracking process in case of an outbreak. The apps can record or exchange different information’s, from the location, to the duration of the interaction between the users.

The statistics show that the measures are successful. The numbers remained low throughout the pandemic and Singapore is therefore one of the safest cities to live in during the age of this dangerous virus.

The discussion about data privacy

Even though the high level of connectivity and the open approach to managing their data has a lot of advantages, especially during the current situation, there are critics coming forward. Some security experts are concerned that the individual privacy is being sacrificed in the process. The question of how open the information should be handled is answered differently by most countries and individuals, which can complicate international collaboration. Therefore, Singapore is concerned about the upcoming EU data protection regime that will require a change in data processing for a successful data transfer. Nevertheless, the different approach has many advantages and as long as the thin line from connectivity to observation is not crossed, it seems to be a reasonable course to follow for this economic giant.

After all, there are a lot of goals that all ASEAN countries are working towards and the improvements can be felt in every area. Singapore as a nation is a prime example for a rapidly growing economy. Nevertheless, the nation has smoothly mastered numerous challenges, such as the pandemic, with their smart use of technology. With their stream of innovations, this nation evidently can’t be diminished by its size.