Sustainable Development Goals and Pandemic Planning

This book assesses the progress in the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in ASEAN, India and China using the above framework conditions in the context with three main propositions. First, translating the SDGs into regional economic integration strategies during the pandemic recovery can enhance the link between global objectives and the multifaceted reality of an ASEAN community building process, and providing a strategic option to strengthen the regional approaches. Secondly, a regional approach on complementarities to SDGs can facilitate the definition of relevant targets/indicators and enhance the monitoring and evaluation framework. In so doing it could also offer the scope to integrate more closely ASEAN community's social and environmental concerns into existing economic, social and political frameworks. Thirdly, focusing just on the geo-economic sphere - the area where south east and East Asian economic integration is relatively more advanced - will prove the hypothesis that effective regional integration through mega trade agreements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) can support the Asia's transformation agenda and foster more inclusive and sustainable growth.

Kaliappa Kalirajan is a Emeritus Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, Australia. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Madras School of Economics, India and the Institute for Development Studies, Visakhapatnam, India. His areas of major interest include macroeconomic and trade policies, sources of growth, regional cooperation in low carbon energy systems, and technology issues in emerging Asian countries. He has 165 publications in those areas in refereed

academic and policy journals. He has authored and edited 18 books. He is currently serving on the editorial board of the following journals:  The Developing Economies; The Journal of Applied Economic Research; Journal of Social and Economic Development; and Asia and the Pacific Policies Studies; Review of Development and Change, Sage Publications; and Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Emerald Publishing.  He has been a consultant to different national and international organizations from time to time.

Fukunari Kimura has been Professor, Faculty of Economics, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan since 2000 and Chief Economist, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) since 2008. He is also a co-editor of the Journal of the Japanese and International Economies. He was born in Tokyo in 1958 and

received his Bachelor of Laws from the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo in 1982, Master of Science and Ph.D. from the Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990 and 1991. He worked for the International Development Center of Japan as Researcher during 1982-1986, the Department of

Economics, State University of New York at Albany as Assistant Professor during 1991-1994, and the Faculty of Economics, Keio University as Associate Professor during 1994-2000. He was also the President of Japan Society of International Economics during 2010-2012. His major is international trade and development economics. In particular, he has recently been active in writing academic/semi-academic books and articles on international production networks and economic integration in East Asia.