• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.37-47
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• 2022

This study uses monthly data from January 2009 to December 2020 to examine the effectiveness of foreign currency intervention and its influence on monetary policy in Vietnam using a Hierarchical Bayesian VAR model. The findings suggest that foreign exchange intervention has little influence on the exchange rate level or exports, but it can significantly minimize exchange rate volatility. As a result, we can demonstrate that the claim that Vietnam is a currency manipulator is false. As well, the forecast error variance decomposition results reveal that interest rate differentials mainly determine the exchange rate level instead of foreign exchange intervention. Moreover, the findings suggest that foreign exchange intervention is not effectively sterilized in Vietnam. Inflation is caused by an increase in international reserves, which leads to an expansion of the money supply and a decrease in interest rates. Although the impact of foreign exchange intervention grows in tandem with the growth of international reserves, if the sterilizing capacity does not improve, rising foreign exchange intervention will instead result in inflation. Finally, we use a rolling window approach to examine the time-varying effect of foreign exchange intervention.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.95-110
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• 2021

Purpose - This paper intends to conduct theoretical analysis and empirical test on the action mechanism of South Korea-China trade and South Korea's FDI to China on green total factor productivity, so as to provide a new perspective and ideas for the improvement of China's green total factor productivity and promote the high-quality development of China's economy Design/methodology - This paper uses the data of 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China from 2004 to 2017 as the research sample, adopts the GML index method of SBM Directional Distance Function to measure GTFP, and analyzes the influence of South Korea-China trade and FDI from South Korea on China's GTFP. Findings - Trade is conducive to promoting technological progress, which has a significant promotion effect on China's green total factor productivity. While FDI has a significant inhibitory effect on China's green total factor productivity, which verifies the "pollution haven" hypothesis. In addition, such influence has certain regional overall heterogeneity. Trade has a more significant promoting effect on GTFP in eastern coastal areas, while FDI has a more significant inhibitory effect on GTFP in central and western inland areas. The interaction between trade and FDI is conducive to the improvement of green total factor productivity, indicating that the benign mechanism of trade and FDI has been formed. Urbanization, industrial structure, human resource level and investment in science and technology are all conducive to the improvement of GTFP. Originality/value - Through theoretical analysis and empirical test on the action mechanism of South Korea-China trade and South Korea's FDI on green total factor productivity, this paper provides a solid theoretical foundation for the further development of China-South Korea economic and trade cooperation in the future.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.125-134
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• 2021

This study aimed to explore the factors affecting the foreign direct investment (FDI) intentions of investors into Quang Ninh province, located in the north-eastern of Viet Nam. Researchers used two main methods, namely, Exploratory Factors Analysis (EFA) and the Structural Equation Model (SEM) based on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS SEM) to explore and measure the impact of factors affecting the investors' FDI intentions into Quang Ninh province. The empirical analysis used data from the survey of 206 domestic and foreign investors into Quang Ninh province, including representatives of the Board of Directors, members, and management representatives at the department level, with reliable tools (SPSS 26 and SmartPLS 3.0 software). The research results identified the following factors affecting investment into Quang Ninh: FDI attraction policies have the strongest impact on the investors' FDI intentions; it is followed by infrastructure, public services and human capital with strong effects on intentions of investors' FDI; and finally the standards of living that affects the investors' FDI intentions. There is also a positive relationship between all the factors and the investors' FDI intentions. Several recommendations are further suggested to enhance attraction of foreign direct investment into Quang Ninh province.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.111-128
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• 2016

Trade between nations has been considered as exchange for material things. According to recent changes in the paradigm of global trade, trade is shifting focus on the exchange of an immaterial being. Among them, the service sector is growing fast and the health service has shown exceptional growth as the healthcare market is consistently expanding. It is also part of the global service targeting people all around the world. People visiting other countries for medical service tend to spend more money and stay longer than a traveler. For these reasons, global medical service is in the spotlight as a promising and higher value-added business. The global medical service industry has been developed around Asia, specifically Thailand, Singapore, India, etc. Compared to them, Korea has come late into the market of global healthcare and the Korean government is striving to attract foreign patients. Nevertheless, there is a lack of effort to make foreign patients visiting Korea revisit Korea. Regarding foreign patients' medical disputes, these are not yet a problem officially; however, the government cannot leave the matter as it is. Medical dispute related with foreign patients is a highly complex issue due to different languages, nationalities, cultures, etc. Particularly, Korea's medical tourism is developed with Chinese visiting Korea for plastic surgery and cosmetic procedure. Thus, the Korean medical tourism market can be crowded with a lot of minor medical agencies, so-called brokers, getting foreign patients connected to the medical institutions. Consequently, Korea has received a large number of complaints and dissatisfaction. No one can predict and know what's supposed to happen in the future. Efforts of the Korean government and medical institute attracting foreign patients could be in vain. In order to take a step forward, this paper will do research on present conditions and look for strategies of improving this industry, focusing on the part of medical agency and contributing to the improvement of the Korean medical tourism industry.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.195-211
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• 2021

This paper measures the economic impacts of the U.S. port investment strategies coping with the Panama Canal expansion. Using secondary import data, negative and positive estimates of the impacts were presented in this study. Reduced port activities into the West Coast Customs Districts negatively affect transportation and warehousing industries, among other effects. Still, they have simultaneous positive effects in other states from increased imports resulting from modal shifts and changes in the entry port located in the South and East coasts. This study applied the supply-driven National Interstate Economic Model that measures all interstate trade among the U.S. states to divert foreign imports from 15 Pacific Rim countries. For this purpose, the following assumption was adopted: larger ships using the canal will lead to a redirection of seaborne trade among U.S. (and other) ports and result in secondary effects, e.g., using different freight modes and regional growth spillovers. This study also accounted for the entry point change and significant port investments for foreign trade under alternative scenarios. The choice of ports for international trade depends on decisions about how to minimize multimodal delivery costs. The total direct reduction of transportation and warehousing activities associated with foreign imports in the West Coast ports was estimated at $3.3 billion, leading to total negative effects of $5.8 billion. Total positive impacts from the shift of transportation modes with the choice of an entry port and new warehousing activities for foreign imports in the selected 12 states varied. As expected, states that involved an entry port had the most prominent benefits, but Texas, New York, and New Jersey may be benefited through all the port enhancement projects in the U.S. Also, except for Transportation and Postal, and Warehousing industries, Construction is another dominant positive affected industry of the Canal expansion in the U.S.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.35-58
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• 2020

Purpose - This study examines the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) location choice for Chinese firms, focusing on the agglomeration effect for firms of the same nationality. Design/methodology - The empirical data are China's inward FDI from the top 19 economies (excluding tax havens and Taiwan) in terms of FDI during 1997-2015 and China's outward FDI from the top 18 economies (excluding tax havens). This study uses a random effects generalized least squares model for panel data analysis. Findings - The results confirm that both host countries' costs and market conditions and the degree of agglomeration affect these countries' attractiveness for FDI inflows. Specifically, agglomeration has a significant effect on China's inward and outward FDI. This study confirms that the agglomeration of firms of the same nationality has predictive power for multinational enterprises' FDI location choices. The host countries' real GDP and trade openness also positively affect FDI inflows. Interestingly, however, China's production cost has a positive effect. Thus, inward FDI aimed at entering the Chinese market is increasing in recent years relative to the previous efficiency-seeking FDI. Inward FDI in China is therefore the market-entry type, whereas outward FDI by Chinese firms is the market-oriented type. Originality/value - These results suggest that the effects of the potential determinants of Chinese outward FDI are similar to those of inward FDI as China's trade liberalization progresses.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.115-127
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• 2019

In recent years, the Indian market has gained worldwide attention in the global trading business environment. Korean companies are also seeking to enter the indian market, and their foreign trade investment strategy is based on the Global Value Chain(GVC). In this study, we examine difference from traditional investment strategy to GVC investment strategy in the age of 4IR(fourth industrial revolution) through using POLS model(pooled least square), FEM(fixed effect model), and REM(randomized effect model). Based on the analysis of 84 monthly data related to the FDI and international trade effects between Korea and India, the following results were found. As Korean companies increased their share of export to the Indian market and export to the Indian market, the number of new companies directly invested in overseas market increased. However, the amount of import into the Indian market was relatively low in relation to the number of new companies directly in overseas markets. As a result of analyzing the investment strategy of the GVC in India, the GVC has shifted from manufacturing to process upgrading to enter the GVC on Smile Curve.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.345-353
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• 2021

The impact of investment on economic growth has been studied by many authors around the world with different times and research methods. Therefore, there are conflicting opinions about the impact of investment on economic growth. To contribute empirical evidence, the objective of this study is to assess the impact of investment sources such as public investment, private investment, and foreign direct investment on economic growth in Vietnam in the short-run and long-run. The data used for the study is panel data from 63 Vietnamese provinces between 2000 and 2020. The inquiry method is PMG (Pool Mean Group) regression for economic growth (GDP) after testing the stationarity of the variables that meet the PMG regression condition as suggested by Pesaran et al. (1996) and Hamuda et al. (2013). The results show that: factors such as labor and trade openness have a negative impact on economic growth in the short term. In the long run, public investment has a negative effect on economic growth, while domestic private investment, foreign direct investment, trade openness, and labor have positive effects on economic growth. Labour contributes the most, followed by trade openness, foreign direct investment, and domestic private investment. Finally, the study provides policy implications for the Government of Vietnam.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.1-19
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• 2021

Purpose - This paper aims at analyzing the functions and effectiveness of the cooperation agenda in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), focusing on the cases of Asian countries. This paper estimates the contribution of this agenda to the sustainable development in Asia by providing the 'side payment' of the economic integration that encourages foreign investment and change in global value chains (GVC). Design/methodology - This study analyzes the functions of the cooperation chapter in FTAs by applying the cooperative game theory and reviewing the structures of the related FTAs. Also, as an empirical study, the existing FTA provisions and related development assistant programs in Asia are reviewed in this paper, especially focusing on the FTAs signed by Korea. Findings - Our main findings can be summarized as follows: The drawback of the economic integration, which would be the imbalanced economic benefit, can be redressed by the cooperation chapter in FTAs functioning as a 'side payment'. Indeed, as the examples of Korean FTAs show, more foreign investment and the GVC expansion in Asian countries have been encouraged thanks to the implementation of the cooperation chapters. Originality/value - This paper attempts to find how a legally binding agreement would influence the cooperation agenda in Asia which has never been analyzed despite the increasing number of so-called 'cooperation' chapters in the FTAs.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.37-57
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• 2022

Purpose -International diplomacy is key for the cohesive economic growth of countries around the world. This study aims to identify the major topics discussed and make sense of word pairs used in sentences by Chinese senior leaders during their diplomatic visits. It also compares the differences between key topics addressed during diplomatic visits to developed and developing countries. Design/methodology - We employed three methods: word frequency, co-word, and semantic network analysis. Text data are crawling state and official visit news released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China regarding diplomatic visits undertaken from 2015-2019. Findings - The results show economic and diplomatic relations most prominently during state and official visits. The discussion topics were classified according to nine centrality keywords most central to the structure and had the maximum influence in China. Moreover, the results showed that China's diplomatic issues and strategies differ between developed and developing countries. The topics mentioned in developing countries were more diverse. Originality/value - Our study proposes an effective approach to identify key topics in Chinese diplomatic talks with other countries. Moreover, it shows that discussion topics differ for developed and developing countries. The findings of this research can help researchers conduct empirical studies on diplomacy relationships and extend our method to other countries. Additionally, it can significantly help key policymakers gain insights into negotiations and establish a good diplomatic relationship with China.