Page 65 - AEI Insights Vol. 7 2021

Jingyi et al, 2021

thousand square km). In term of land area, Indonesia is 2,720 times as large as Singapore.
Secondly, the total population in ASEAN countries amounted to 656.3 million. Indonesia is
the largest country in term of the population (267.6 million) while Brunei is the smallest
country (0.4 million). Indonesia is 669 times as large as Brunei in term of population. Thirdly,
the total GDP in ASEAN countries amounted to 3.2 trillion US dollars. Once again, Indonesia
has the biggest national income (US$1.2 trillion) while Brunei has the smallest national income
(US$13.3 million). In term of GDP, Indonesia is 90 time as large as Brunei. Finally, there are
three ASEAN countries whose income per person are greater than US$10,000, namely
Singapore (US$68,487), Brunei (US$30,204) and Malaysia (US$11,484). By contrast, there
are four countries whose income per person is less than US$3,000, namely Cambodia, Lao
PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam. These countries are known as CLMV countries. The main
objective of ASEAN economic policy is to stimulate economic growth in these CLMV
countries to catch with richer ASEAN countries, such as Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia.

Table 2: Geographic size, population and income (2020)
Land Area Total Population GDP GDP per capita

(1000 square km) (million) (billion US (US dollars)
dollars)

Brunei 5.7 0.4 13.3 30,240

Cambodia 181.0 15.2 21.8 1,614
Indonesia 1,904.5 267.6 1,200.0 4,460

Lao PDR 237.9 7.1 20.1 2,670
Malaysia 330.8 32.7 381.5 11,484

Myanmar 676.5 52.5 66.1 1,245
Philippines 300.0 109.0 383.3 3,484

Singapore 0.7 5.7 391.3 68,487
Thailand 513.1 69.9 516.0 7,607

Vietnam 331.2 96.2 261.6 2,740
Total 4,681.4 656.3 3,255.0 -----

Source: World Bank (2020)

Table 3 reports four types of labour force participation rate (LFPR), namely the total LRPR,
the male LFPR, the female LFPR and the LFPR gap or the difference between male and female
LFPR. The findings from the table also indicate that there is a considerable difference in the
LFPR among ASEAN countries. Firstly, the average level of total LFPR in ASEAN countries
is 64.5. There are two countries whose total LFPR are greater than 70, namely Cambodia (81.7)
and Vietnam (76.2). By contrast, there are two countries whose total LFPR is less than 60,
namely Lao (40.7) and the Philippines (58.9). Cambodia has the highest level of total LFPR
while Lao has the lowest level of the total LFPR. In other words, Cambodia’s total LFPR is

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