Between-country inequality. Another aspect of inequality in Southeast Asia is
the between-country inequality (Figure 14.5) – the developmental divide between
relatively advanced countries, such as Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia,
the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, on the one hand, and new member
states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), such as Cambodia,
the Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam (CLMV), on the other. It has been
widely argued that bridging the intra-ASEAN income gap holds a key to seamless
regional economic integration in that equitable development within an economic
grouping serves as a prerequisite for successful regional economic integration
(Viner 1950; Park 2000).