Institutions for Asian Integration: Innovation and Reform

The formation of regional production networks in East Asia has occurred mainly through market forces, without much help from regional institutions in promoting the creation of a single Asian market. While this approach has served the region well in the past, the drastic changes experienced since the 2008–2009 financial crisis and the challenges Asian countries are facing - growing inequalities and competition, on the one hand, and enhanced threats to the environment and people’s health on the other - have rendered more urgent the need for intergovernmental cooperation at global and regional levels. Asia’s institutions for regionalism need strengthening through reform and innovation.