Systematics and biogeography of Southeast Asian Senecioneae (Asteraceae): Revision of Cissampelopsis and Gynura and hybridisation in the introduced Crassocephalum

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Die vorgelegte Dissertation enthält zwei Teile. Der erste beinhaltet eine Einführung in die Flora Südostasiens und die Untersuchungsgruppe Asteraceae-Senecioneae Cass. mit den Gattungen Cissampelopsis (DC.) Miq., Gynura Cass. und Crassocephalum Moench (Kapitel 1). Der zweite Teil besteht aus drei Manuskripten, die auf originalen Forschungsergebnissen basieren (Kapitel 2-4). In Kapitel 2 wird eine Revision der asiatischen Gattung Cissampelopsis vorgelegt. Die folgenden zwei Sektionen mit zehn Arten und zwei Varietäten werden anerkannt: sect. Buimalia C. Jeffrey & Y. L. Chen mit C. buimalia (Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don) C. Jeffrey & Y. L. Chen, C. erythrochaeta C. Jeffrey & Y. L. Chen und C. calcadensis (Ramasw.) C. Jeffrey & Y. L. Chen sowie sect. Cissampelopsis mit C. glandulosa C. Jeffrey & Y. L. Chen, C. walkeri (Arn.) C. Jeffrey & Y. L. Chen mit var. walkeri und var. floccosa Vanijajiva & Kadereit (var. nov.), C. corifolia C. Jeffrey & Y. L. Chen, C. volubilis (Bl.) Miq, C. ansteadii (Tadul. & Jacob) C. Jeffrey & Y. L. Chen, C. spelaeicola (Van.) C. Jeffrey & Y. L. Chen und C. corymbosa (Wall. ex DC.) C. Jeffrey & Y. L. Chen. Schlüssel, Artbeschreibungen, Fotographien von Blütenmerkmalen und Verbreitungskarten werden präsentiert. Kapitel 3 beinhaltet die Revision der paläotropischen Gattung Gynura. Vierundvierzig Arten werden anerkannt, darunter die folgenden drei Neubeschreibungen: G. davisii Vanijajiva & Kadereit, G. siamensis Vanijajiva & Kadereit und G. villosus Vanijajiva & Kadereit. Gynura dissecta (F. G. Davies) Vanijajiva & Kadereit, G. annua (F. G. Davies) Vanijajiva & Kadereit und G. aurantiaca (Bl) DC. subsp. parviflora (F. G. Davies) Vanijajiva & Kadereit sind Neukombinationen. Ein Schlüssel, Artbeschreibungen und Verbreitungskarten werden vorgelegt. In Kapitel 4 wird eine Analyse von Crassocephalum in Asien, einer aus Afrika eingeschleppten Gattung, präsentiert. Diese Untersuchung basiert auf umfangreicher Feldarbeit, Herbarstudien, Analysen der Pollen- und Samenfertilität, Chromosomenzählungen sowie ITS- und trnL-F-Sequenzen. Die Studie ergab, dass Crassocephalum in Asien mit zwei Arten und deren Hybrid vertreten ist. Die zwei Arten sind C. crepidioides (Benth.) S. Moore und C. rubens (Juss. ex Jacq.) S. Moore, wobei letztere einen Neufund für Asien darstellt. Der Hybrid aus diesen beiden Arten resultiert aus einer Kreuzung von C. crepidioides (2n=40) als weiblichem und C. rubens (2n=40) als männlichem Elter.

Indonesien in der ASEAN des 21. Jahrhunderts: eine Analyse des indonesischen Einflusspotenzials in der Assoziation südostasiatischer Staaten

Die Geschichte und Entwicklung der ASEAN und Indonesiens im Zeitraum von 1967rnbis ins frühe 21. Jahrhundert sind eng miteinander verknüpft. Um der Frage nachrndem indonesischen Einflusspotenzial in der ASEAN im 21. Jahrhundert nachgehenrnund dann einen Ausblick auf die Zukunft der Rolle Indonesiens in der ASEAN gebenrnzu können, bedarf es zunächst einer Analyse dessen, was in der Vergangenheitrndazu führte, dass Indonesien in der Region als primus inter pares wahrgenommenrnwurde, und der Rolle, die Indonesien im Rahmen der Erweiterung und Vertiefung der ASEAN bisher spielte. So ist der Fokus der Arbeit auf vier Phasen gerichtet: (1) die Gründungszeit der ASEAN sowie die Etablierung Indonesiens als einer der einflussreichsten Mitgliedstaaten; (2) die asiatische Finanzkrise, die nicht nur der Entwicklung der ASEAN als erstem Erfolgsmodell regionaler Kooperation in Südostasien vorläufig ein Ende setzte, sondern auch Indonesien in große wirtschaftliche wie politische Turbulenzen trieb; (3) die überregionale Erweiterung der ASEAN und der Beginn der politischen Transformation in Indonesien sowie (4) die Vertiefung der ASEAN-Kooperation und die Stabilisierung Indonesiens als demokratischer Akteur. rnFür alle vier Phasen werden das materielle Machtprofil, die institutionellen Verknüpfungen sowie ideelle Faktoren des Einflusspotenzials Indonesiens untersucht, um sich einer Antwort auf die Frage zu nähern, über welches Einflusspotenzial Indonesien in der ASEAN des 21. Jahrhunderts verfügt. Die Analyse bringt zutage, dass es Indonesien vor der Asienkrise trotz erheblicherrnEntwicklungsrückstände möglich war, gestaltenden Einfluss auf die ASEANrnauszuüben und an regionaler Bedeutsamkeit sowie Einflusspotenzial in der ASEANrnzu gewinnen. Trotz deutlich erkennbarer Entwicklungsfortschritte ist dasrngegenwärtige Indonesien jedoch nicht in der Lage, sein Einflusspotenzial in derrnASEAN zu steigern, sich als relevanter Akteur zu etablieren und erneut einernSchlüsselrolle einzunehmen. Die Akteure der ASEAN folgen nicht wie einst denrnIdeen Indonesiens, und die regionale Fremdwahrnehmung Indonesiens wird ganzrnerheblich vom derzeitigen politischen und sozialen Wertesystem beeinflusst, mit dem sich kein anderer ASEAN-Staat ohne Einschränkung identifizieren kann. rnDie Erkenntnisse der Arbeit führen letztlich zu dem Fazit, dass es aktuell kaum Raum für eine Steigerung des indonesishen Einflusse innerhalb des ostasiatischenrnRegionalismus gibt. Für die Gegenwart und vielleicht die kommenden Dekaden mussrnfür Indonesien attestiert werden, dass es sich mit der Rolle als Teilnehmer in den ASEAN-Prozessen begnügen muss.

Liberation as Revolutionary Praxis: Rethinking Buddhism Materialism

While it is only in recent decades that scholars have begun to reconsider and problematize Buddhist conceptions of “freedom” and “agency,” the thought traditions of Asian Buddhism have for many centuries struggled with questions related to the issue of “liberation”—along with its fundamental ontological, epistemological and ethical implications. With the development of Marxist thought in the mid to late nineteenth century, a new paradigm for thinking about freedom in relation to history, identity and social change found its way to Asia, and confronted traditional religious interpretations of freedom as well as competing Western ones. In the past century, several attempts have been made—in India, southeast Asia, China and Japan—to bring together Marxist and Buddhist worldviews, with only moderate success (both at the level of theory and practice). This paper analyzes both the possibilities and problems of a “Buddhist materialism” constructed along Marxian lines, by focusing in particular on Buddhist and Marxist conceptions of “liberation.” By utilizing the theoretical work of Japanese “radical Buddhist” Seno’o Girō, I argue that the root of the tension lies with conceptions of selfhood and agency—but that, contrary to expectations, a strong case can be made for convergence between Buddhist and Marxian perspectives on these issues, as both traditions ultimately seek a resolution of existential determination in response to alienation. Along the way, I discuss the work of Marx, Engels, Gramsci, Lukàcs, Sartre, and Richard Rorty in relation to aspects of traditional (particularly East Asian Mahāyāna) Buddhist thought.

A prehistoric thoroughfare between the Ganges and the Himalayas

The greater Himalayan region, including the Tibetan plateau in the north and the Gangetic plain in the south, served as the principal prehistoric thoroughfare for the peopling of East and Southeast Asia. The descendants of ancient migrants through this region ultimately settled lands as far away as New Zealand, Madagascar and the Americas. Several of the keys to understanding the ethnogenesis of human diversity in Asia include the Father Tongue correlation, possible refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum and the hypothesis that language families may have arisen as the result of demographic bottlenecks in prehistory. Ethnolinguistically informed inferences based on Asian Y chromosomal phylogeography permit a reconstruction of episodes of ethnolinguistic prehistory which lie beyond the linguistic event horizon, i.e. beyond the time depth empirically accessible to historical linguistics. The origins of the language families which make up the hypothetical Uralo-Siberian and East Asian linguistic phyla are argued to have lain in the northeastern corner of the Indian subcontinent. Several other Asian language families are shown to be tied to the subcontinent. The Centripetal Migration model, which assumes that migrations in quest of a better life unfolded in both centrifugal and centripetal directions with respect to technologically more advanced centres of civilisation, is opposed to the Farming Language Dispersal theory, which assumes that all linguistic dispersals were driven by agricultural centrifugal migration.

Financial Cooperation in East Asia

This paper addresses the rationale for financial cooperation in East Asia. It begins by giving a brief review of developments after the Asian currency crisis, and argues that enhancing regional financial cooperation both quantitatively and qualitatively will require: (1) upgrading surveillance capabilities in the region, and (2) creating a clear division of labor between regional institutions and the IMF. It also mentions the issue of membership and the background forces that have led to the duplication of similar forums in East Asia. Although the concern over crisis management is the central issue in East Asian financial cooperation, other issues such as exchange rate policy coordination and fostering regional capital markets are discussed as well.

Winner-Take-All Contention of Innovation under Globalization: A Simulation Analysis and East Asia's Empirics

This paper sets out to examine how innovation enhances export competitiveness: The proposition that export volume becomes enhanced as more productivity-enhancing innovation is captured by the exporting economy is the focus of this study. From a Schumpeterian perspective, innovation can be characterized by continuous creation and subsequent diffusion of newer technologies on the basis of the exporters' existing capital stock. Then we highlight the theoretical possibility that concentration of innovative activities in a small group of "winner" economies would lead to larger shares of "winner" economies' exports of innovation-active commodities than those commodities for which technology involved is already mature. The world's export data corroborates this theoretical prediction overall, and a focus upon East Asia has revealed the region's increasing resort to technology-intensive commodity sectors, which has presumably been enabled through attracting technology-bearing inward foreign direct investment. Considering the overall gains from innovation, acceleration of full "cycle" of innovation and imitation might be a desirable option.

Effectiveness and Challenges of Three Economic Corridors of the Greater Mekong Sub-region

Since the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) program began in 1992, activities have expanded and flourished. The three economic corridors are composed of the East-West, North-South, and Southern; these are the most important parts of the flagship program. This article presents an evaluation of these economic corridors and their challenges in accordance with the regional distribution of population and income, population pyramids of member countries, and trade relations of member economies.

Trade, Exchange Rates, and Macroeconomic Dynamics in East Asia: Why the Electronics Cycle Matters

Against the background of increasing regional trade and investment, there is growing interest in monetary and macroeconomic policy coordination in East Asia. Although there is a sizable literature on macroeconomic linkages among East Asian countries and the potential merit of policy coordination in the region, the existing studies tend to examine these issues exclusively in terms of macroeconomic variables and do not consider how these aggregate variables are influenced by one prominent feature of a number of East Asian economies: their heavy dependence on the electronics industry. Although active engagement in the global electronics industry has been a powerful growth engine for the Asian countries, it has also left their economies vulnerable to cyclical fluctuations in the world electronics market. As the cycle of the global electronics industry exerts profound impacts on the medium-term dynamics of the Asian economies, it is imperative to take an explicit account of its influence when studying the way in which the regional economies are linked to one another and how this relationship can be altered by a specific policy initiative. We illustrate the importance of this point by examining recent studies on: (1) trade competition between China andother Asian countries and the role of the Chinese renminbi therein; and (2) the effect offluctuations in the yen/dollar exchange rate on the regional economies.

The "Catching up" Process of Manufacturing in East Asia

This paper examines the "catching up" process of manufacturing in East Asia within the framework of North and South location. Results of this study indicate that latecomers of the ASEAN Four and China have advanced the "catching up" process. At the same time, second-runners of the Asian NIES have more extensively increased their "catching up" with Japan. Most "catching up" was realized in a very short period in the 1990s, and the advancement of the "catching up" process has moved into various industries from nondurable products to light machinery products. However, it has not yet advanced in heavy machinery such as in the industrial machinery and machine tool industries.

Rules of Origin and Local Content in East Asia

Rules of Origin (RoO) are an integral part of all trade rules. In order to be eligible for Common Effective Preferential Tariffs (CEPT) under AFTA and similar arrangements under the ASEAN-China FTA, a product must satisfy the conditions relative to local content. The paper tries to calculate local content as well as cumulative local content in East Asian economies, with use of the Asian International Input-Output Tables; it also investigates factors of change in local content by applying decomposition analysis. The paper finds that the cumulation rule increased local content of the electronics industry more significantly than local content of the automotive industry, and the contribution of the cumulation rule increased in the period 1990-2000, due to rising dependency on neighboring ASEAN countries and China.

Industrial Policy in Asia

This paper examines three types of industrialization that have occurred in East Asia: the Japanese, Chinese and generic Asian models. Industrial policies in Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) initially protected local companies from foreign investors by imposing high tariffs on foreign investors. But Japan began introducing liberalization policies to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in the 1960s, and the ROK began to welcome foreign technology in the 1970s. Meanwhile, the governments of the ASEAN countries and Taiwan established export-processing zones (EPZ) to invite FDI by offering preferential treatment, such as tax deductions and exemptions. China adopted similar industrial policies and also established EPZs, attracting the capital and know-how of multinationals and thereby strengthening the international competitiveness of local enterprises. This paper reaches the following three conclusions. First, it would have been difficult for East Asian countries to grow without FDI. Second, central governments were a crucial factor in these countries' growth strategies. Third, EPZs offering preferential treatment can effectively enhance aggregate growth in developing countries, and the Asian experience shows that this strategy can be applied to other countries that satisfy certain preconditions.

Unlocking the Potential of Zambian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises "Learning from the international best practices - the Southeast Asian Experience"

This paper examines the SMEs performance in Zambia and attempts to identify some practical lessons that Zambia can learn from Southeast Asian countries (with reference to Malaysia) in order to facilitate industrial development through unlocking the potential of its SMEs sector. Malaysia and Zambia were at the same level of economic development as evidenced by similar per capita incomes but Zambia has remained behind economically and its manufacturing sector has stagnated as if both countries did not have similar initial endowments. It therefore, becomes imperative that Zambia learns from such countries on how they managed to take-off economically with a focus on SME development. Training (education), research & development, market availability and technological advancement through establishment of industrial linkages coupled with cluster formation were some of the outstanding strategies identified that Zambia could use as a “key” to unlock its SMEs’ potential as it strives to meet the UN MDGs in particular halving its poverty levels by 2015 and also realizing its vision of becoming a middle income earner by 2030.

Financing Small and Medium Enterprises in Myanmar

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) share the biggest part in Myanmar economy in terms of number, contribution to employment, output, and investment. Myanmar economic growth is thus totally dependent on the development of SMEs in the private sector. Today, the role of SMEs has become more vital in strengthening national competitive advantage and the speedy economic integration into the ASEAN region. However, studies show that SMEs have to deal with a number of constraints that hinder their development potential, such as the shortage in power supply, unavailability of long-term credit from external sources and many others. Among them, the financing problem of SMEs is one of the biggest constraints. Such is deeply rooted in demand and supply issues, macroeconomic fundamentals, and lending infrastructure of the country. The government’s policy towards SMEs could also lead to insufficient support for the SMEs. Thus, focusing on SMEs and private sector development as a viable strategy for industrialization and economic development of the country is a fundamental requirement for SME development. This paper recommends policies for stabilizing macro economic fundamentals, improving lending infrastructures of the country and improving demand- and supply-side conditions from the SMEs financing perspective in order to provide a more accessible financing for SMEs and to contribute in the overall development of SMEs in Myanmar thereby to sharpen national competitive advantage in the age of speedy economic integration.

A journey through the secret history of the Flying Geese Model

Economic development in East Asia is characterized by the sequential "take-off" of member countries. This multi-tiered economic development in East Asia is often termed the “Flying Geese” pattern of economic development. However, some authors argue that the traditional Flying Geese pattern is not applicable to some industries such as electronics. Here, Japan may no longer be the sole "leading goose", with "followers" such as China (now producing cutting-edge products) having "caught-up". Does this mean that the Flying Geese Model has become "obsolete" in the 21st century? The main objective of this paper is to clarify the two concepts of Flying Geese which now seem confused: (1) application of the pattern of economic development in one specific country, and (2) application of the pattern of economic development to multiple countries in sequence. This paper provides validity checks of Flying Geese Models after differentiating these two concepts more clearly