Tourism has been one of the hardest- hit sectors by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Secretary Romulo-Puyat talks to The ASEAN about the pandemic’s impact on the Philippines’ tourism industry, on jobs and businesses, and how the country is working towards recovery.
Minister Ida Fauziyah talks to The ASEAN about Indonesia’s strategies for formalising work arrangements in Indonesia, the opportunities and threats presented by digitalisation on the country’s informal sector, and efforts to address gaps in measuring and analysing informal employment. She also discussed the ongoing work of the ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting to promote decent work and extend social protection to informal workers in the region.
Identity is not inscribed in stone and fixed for all eternity. It is an ongoing process of being and becoming, never truly reaching a standstill.
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala talks to The ASEAN about COVAX, one of three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which focuses on ensuring the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to both higher income and lower-income countries. She also shares her insights on the ongoing competition and prospects for cooperation in vaccine development and distribution.
It is with great pleasure that I welcome the opportunity to contribute insights from a Canadian perspective. This COVID-19 Special Issue on “Strengthening Health Systems in ASEAN” is timely to reflect on the challenges posed during this unrelenting global pandemic.
The creative economy has the potential to not only strengthen the expansion of global value chains, increase digital adoption among creative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), fuel the export of cultural goods and creative services, and foster ownership through local engagement, but also contribute to the overarching goal of sustainable development. The global market for creative goods increased considerably from 436 billion US dollars in 2002 to 964 billion US dollars in 2015 (UNCTAD, 2021).
Creativity is part of Singapore’s DNA and has always been intertwined with our national development. In a 2018 speech, our Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Hsien Loong, noted: “Singapore is a nation by design. Nothing we have today is natural or happened by itself.”
