Philippine E-Journals

Industrial Cooperation and the ASEAN Energy Problem

Elmer A. Abueg

Discipline: Political Science

 

Abstract:

The biggest threat to the present international economic and social order comes from the great imbalances in the world's distribution of energy and other resources. The cheap-oil era has ended; the world is now in a period of transition to an era of high-cost energy. Given the long-term challenges of higher oil prices (in real terms the price of oil is now more than five times what it was in 1972) and the enormous investment needs to meet the demands of developing alternative domestic sources of energy, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is left with but one choice - to reduce dependence on oil imports - if it is to succeed in its long-term development efforts.