Pollution Risks Accompanied with Economic Integration of ASEAN Countries and the Fragmentation of Production Processes
06.04.2016
Ryo Fujikura
Professor, Faculty of Humanity and Environment
Hosei University
I was able to visit UNIDO Headquarters, on the occasion of my trip to Vienna for my other research purposes. I wished to visit there and to communicate with UNIDO’s staff, as I am studying environmental issues and UNIDO has been contributing to world environmental management by various measures, including technology transfer.
On March 21, 2016, Mr. Seric arranged a brown bag lunch seminar participated by 11 staff from UNIDO, and allowed me to make a presentation of a recent research conducted by my research group, titled “Pollution Risks Accompanied with Economic Integration of ASEAN Countries and the Fragmentation of Production Processes.”
On December 31, 2015, ASEAN eliminated all tariffs and established the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). Meanwhile, Thai companies are moving their assembly factories from Thailand to neighboring countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar as wages in Thailand started increasing.
While Thailand has already developed its environmental policy, pollution control measures in most neighboring countries are still being developed. Without pollution control standards there is a higher risk of industrial pollution. While industrial zones funded by Japanese ODA or Japanese companies are equipped with common waste treatment facilities, other zones are not. The latter ones generally offer cheaper rent to attract factories, which are expected to treat their waste water by themselves.
Presently, most factories are in the field of light industry, such as garment factories, and significant industrial pollution is not yet reported. However, when infrastructure such as electricity is developed, factories with higher pollution discharges will be established, increasing overall pollution risks.
The UNIDO staff attending my presentation provided me some useful suggestions for our future study, such as conducting model calculation to estimate future pollution risks using macroeconomic data. I express my gratitude to Mr. Gelegen and Mr. Seric for their kind arrangement of my visit.
(ITPO Tokyo’s Note)
ITPO Tokyo would also like to thank HQ colleagues for facilitation of Prof. Fujikura’s visit, including Mr. Seric, Mr. Vera and Mr. Bahramalian.