PENANG, August 2014 – An encouraging blueprint drafted out by the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) to bring the 10 ASEAN countries to the next level of economic development was outlined by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kyoko Kusakabe during a plenary session at the KANITA Postgraduate International Conference on Gender Studies (KPICGS) 2014, a two-day seminar held recently in Universiti Sains Malaysia.

“The AEC aims to create a single market-cum-production base, ensuring a free-flow of goods, services, investment, capital, skilled labour, and the liberalisation of 12 priority integration sectors,” said Kyoko who is from School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand.

The 12 priority integration sectors comprised agro-based products, air transport, automotive, e-ASEAN, electronics, fisheries, healthcare, rubber-based products, textiles and apparel, tourism, wood-based products and logistics as well as the food, agriculture and forestry sectors.

“With this in place, there will be more equitable economic development whereby helps to integrate ASEAN into the global economy,” Kyoko said during her presentation entitled Gendered Impact of Regional Economic Integration: Women and Men under Greater Cross-Border Mobility of People and Goods in Southeast Asia.

She described how trade liberalisation at the ASEAN level can be transmitted to individuals and households.

“Individuals and households benefit from changes in relative world prices of imported and exported goods which can be translated as lower food prices, reduced trade-related taxes and increased employment,” Kyoko cited examples.

She, however, highlighted that men and women tend to work in different industry or sectors as there is likely segregation in the labour market.

Studies have also shown that there has been an increase in labour migration in various Asian regions from 1984 to 2006, particularly since 2000.

It was found that more women are engaged in less skilled jobs and unfortunately as migrant workers such as domestic workers, they are often excluded from labour law protection.

Kyoko also cited the case of Burmese migrant workers, mostly women, who illegally crossed over to work in garment factories in the Mae Sot district, Thailand.

These migrant workers flee across the river to Burma whenever there is a raid by the Thai authorities and would return to work when the raid is over.

“A study found that these Burmese working mothers preferred to leave their children to be cared for by family members in Burma,” she said, adding that it was a way to cope with ‘distance mothering’ than to leave the children with paid caretakers. - Text and Photo: Yong Check Yoon