Dr. Antoinette Raquiza, Associate Professor at the Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman, presented a paper, "Politics, Governance, and the Services Sector in the Philippines" at an international workshop held from 15 to 16 May 2015 at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo, Japan. In her paper, Dr. Raquiza argues that the Philippines's rapid growth is due to the "explosion of its international trade in services," specifically labor export and the business process outsourcing (BPO) industries. Accounting for this trend, in turn, are the changing organization of "corporate globalization" and national policies that link Philippine skilled labor to global markets. Dr. Raquiza stresses the need to increase public spending on education at all levels and to expand the services-manufacturing nexus for the country to stay competitive and "climb up the value chain in services."
Carrying the theme “Beyond crises and traps in Southeast Asia: Reshaping economic strategies, social policies and political configurations,” the workshop aimed to examine the changing development contexts and strategies of the region's growing middle-income economies. The two-day activity was organized by the Political Economy Group of the GRIPS's Emerging State Project. Click here for more information on GRIPS and the workshop.
Dr. Antoinette Raquiza specializes in the political economy of late development, comparative political institutions, globalization and international political economy, and identity politics and conflict studies. She handles several graduate-level courses at the UP Asian Center, including on modern Asian history, political economy of Southeast Asia, and nationalism and national development. Her full faculty profile may be viewed here.
The Asian Center offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. The Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website. For other news and upcoming events at the Asian Center, click here.