Vietnam (Banik, Barai and Suzuki (2017). Our specific interest is on those countries within this region where there is a variety of different forms of global mobility, but with a particular emphasis on intra-Asian commuting and, especially in the light of the current Covid-19 pandemic (Osborn, 2020), on virtual assignments. This is linked, in part at least to the differing stages of economic development and levels of connectivity across the region.
Context & ConnectivityThe Asia Pacific region has contrasting forecasts for economic growth between developed and developing economies. Advanced economies including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore, have forecast growth in 2021 of between 2.3% to 5%, according to the Asia and Pacific Economic Regional Outlook from the IMF (IMF 2020). In contrast, predictions for emerging economies range from 4% for Thailand, Malaysia 7.8%, 4.4% for Bangladesh, rising to 8.8% for India.In future, developments such as the Belt and Road Initiative in the Asia-Pacific region are predicted to enable the linking up of many cities integrating economies in this region much more closely together. This project is designed to improve overland and maritime connectivity from China to Central Asia and Europe (Dollar, 2020). It is forecast that this will enhance foreign trade, the flow of physical and financial capital, the transfer of knowledge and technologies, cultural exchanges, political relations, and the flow of people among the countries involved (Banik, Kumar and Suzuki, 2017). Connectivity has been further enhanced in the Asia-Pacific region by the development of education hub projects in India,