2014 Provincial And Inaugural Regional Competitiveness Analysis: Safeguarding Indonesia's Growth Momentum

Tan Khee Giap is the Co-Director of Asia Competitiveness Institute and Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He is also the Chairman of Singapore National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation. Upon graduating with a PhD from University of East Anglia, England, in 1987 under the Overseas Research Scheme awarded by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom, he joined the banking sector as a treasury manager and served as secretary to the Assets and Liabilities Committee for three years. There after, he taught at the Department of Economics and Statistics, National University of Singapore, 1990–1993. Dr Tan joined Nanyang Technological University in 1993 and was Associate Dean, Graduate Studies Office, 2007–2009. He is now with Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Dr Tan has consulted extensively with the various government ministries, statutory boards and government-linked companies of Singapore government on policies concerning financial, fiscal, trade, tourism, public housing, labor, telecommunication, tourism, liveable cities, creative industry, media, community development, airport and seaport activities. He has also served as a consultant to international agencies such as the Asian Development Bank, Asian Development Bank Institute, United Nations Industrial Development Group, World Gold Council, ASEAN Secretariat, Central Policy Unit of Hong Kong, Kerzner International, Las Vegas Sands, Marina Bay Sands, and other international financial institutions and multinational corporations. Dr Tan is the lead author of eight books and has published in international refereed journals such as Applied Economics (UK), ASEAN Economic Bulletin (Singapore), Asian Economic Papers (US), Competitiveness Review (UK), International Journal of Business Competition and Growth (UK), International Journal of Chinese Culture and Business Management (UK), International Journal of Economics and Business Research (UK), International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management (UK), Journal of Centrum Cathedra The Business and Economics Research Journal (Peru), Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy (UK), Journal of Southeast Asian Economies (Singapore), Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (US), and World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development (Switzerland). He is the associate editor of the journal Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (US). His current research interests include econometric forecasting, Cost of Living Index, Global Liveable Cities Index and competitiveness analysis on 31 provinces in China, 35 states in India and ASEAN-10 economies.

Nurina Merdikawati is a Research Associate at the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), National University of Singapore (NUS). Nurina graduated with a Master's in Public Policy from LKYSPP with a specialization in economic policy analysis. She was a Mochtar Riady Scholar and was on the dean's list. Nurina received her Bachelor degree in Economics from Nanyang Technological University, (NTU) Singapore (Second Upper). During her education, Nurina worked with the Central Bank of Indonesia as a visiting researcher, and held an internship at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Jakarta. At ACI, Nurina is engaged and coordinating the research on Indonesia's competitiveness analysis at the provincial and regional level, and the country's agriculture productivity. Prior to ACI, she spearheaded data management, collection, and analysis for INSEAD eLab projects and The Global Talent Competitiveness Index. Additionally, Nurina conducted firm-level studies on building business performance and competitiveness with new information and communications technology (ICTs), country-level studies on payment systems, and talent competitiveness. Nurina has diverse research interests which include benchmarking, competitiveness analysis, economic development and applied econometrics.

Mulya Amri is Research Associate at the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI), and PhD candidate at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS). He has 13 years of working experience in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. Before starting his PhD studies in 2011, Mulya worked in Singapore with HOK, a global planning and architecture consultancy firm, and with Jurong Consultants, the consultancy arm of Singapore's JTC Corporation, which is responsible for the planning, development and management of numerous industrial parks in Singapore. Prior to moving to Singapore, Mulya worked with international development agencies such as UNDP, UN-HABITAT, and the World Bank on projects related to urban and housing development, and community-driven development in various Indonesian regions. He was also a co-founder of COMBINE Resource Institution, an NGO based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, working to strengthen community-based information systems. Together with Tan Khee Giap, Linda Low and Tan Kong Yam, Mulya co-wrote "Competitiveness Analysis and Development Strategies for 33 Indonesian Provinces", published by World Scientific in 2013. He has also written book chapters on inter-municipal cooperation (published by GIZ), human settlements (published by the Ministry of Public Works, Indonesia), community media, and Corporate Social Responsibility (published by Indonesia Business Links). Mulya graduated with a bachelor's degree from Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Indonesia, and was awarded the Fulbright scholarship to study for a Master's degree in Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Chevening award to study at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Adjunct Professor Tan Kong Yam is presently the Co-Director of the Asia Competitiveness Institute. He is also Professor of Economics at the Nanyang Technological University. From June 2002 to June 2005, he was a senior economist at the World Bank office in Beijing where he worked on issues of macro stabilization, integration of the fragmented domestic market, banking reform, international trade and investment, energy security as well as regional inequality. In 2004, he was a member of the World Bank expert group on the eleventh five year plan (2006–2010) for the State Council in China. The expert group provided analysis and policy recommendations on urbanization, regional inequality, innovation policy, energy and water policy as well as strategy on banking reform to the Chinese government. Prior to that, he was the chief economist of the Singapore government (1999–2002), Head, Department of Business Policy, Faculty of Business Administration at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is a graduate of Princeton (1975–79, class of 1931 scholar, Paul Volcker Thesis prize) and Stanford University (1980–83), where he completed his Master and PhD in three years. Prior to joining NUS, he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, World Bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and was the Director of Research at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Singapore. His research interests are in international trade and finance, economic and business trends in the Asia Pacific region and economic reforms in China. He has published ten books and numerous articles in major international journals including American Economic Review, World Bank Economic Review, Long Range Planning, Australian Journal of Management etc on economic and business issues in the Asia Pacific region. He served as board member at the Singapore Central Provident Fund Board (1984–96) and the National Productivity Board (1989–90). He has also consulted for many organizations including Temasek, GIC, Citigroup, IBM, ATT, BP, ABN-AMRO, Ikea, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, People's Bank of China, EDB, Areva, Capitaland, Guangdong provincial government, Samsung, Mauritius Government, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mobil, Singapore Technology, etc.