Cambodia is one of the most highly “dollarized” economies in the world. However, due to the lack of micro-level data, econometric studies of individual economic entities such as households and companies are limited, and corporate financing has not been investigated using econometric techniques. This paper is a pioneering econometric analysis to elucidate the characteristics and determinants of Cambodian companies’ bank borrowing in dollars. In addition, this paper is unique in analyzing the specific Cambodian feature that, unlike the ordinal dollarization case in which companies can select the currency in which to borrow, Cambodian companies have no other choice but to borrow in dollars.

This paper uses a sample selection model to estimate the determinants of the dollar bank borrowing ratio for 103 companies by using the data set collected by the NBC-JICA joint survey in 2014. According to the estimation results, (1) Companies’ ability to provide collateral and insurance coverage has the positive effect on raising the dollar bank borrowing ratio, while (2) abundant internal funds lower the dollar bank borrowing ratio. (3) The impact of the dollar-denominated revenue ratio on dollar borrowing depends on the abundance of corporate internal funds, (4) for companies with poor financial margins it has no impact, while for companies with affordability, it has a positive impact on the dollar-denominated bank borrowing ratio.

These results support the standard corporate financing hypothesis in Cambodia, where the financial development has been delayed. However, firms are facing borrowing constraints and the amount of collateral is useful for expanding dollar-denominated bank borrowing. Also, although there is a currency mismatch risk that is specific to the dollarized economy, companies lacking affordable internal funds tend to use dollar-denominated borrowing without paying attention to the accompanying currency risk.

The estimated results suggest several policy tasks. First, in order to improve the asymmetry of information, efforts by financial institutions such as to improve the bank screening ability, and corporate efforts such as to improve the accounting and organization of financial information are required. Second, in order to expand the use of collateral and insurance, which is already playing an important role in corporate financing, it is important to develop the land registration system and disseminate the insurance system. Third, it is necessary to pay more attention to currency mismatches in the dollarized economy.

This paper examines Australia’s foreign policy towards Indonesia’s invasion of Timor-Leste (then called, Portuguese Timor); more specifically, it focuses on Don Willesee’s foreign policy towards Timor-Leste. Willesee was the Whitlam government’s Foreign Minister between 05 November, 1973 and 11 November, 1975. This study also focuses on Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, whose influence over foreign policymaking was more than Willesee’s. Whitlam nurtured a close relationship with Indonesian President Suharto. Therefore, to make policy recommendations, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs, which was led by its Secretary Alan Renouf, had to take into account the views of the Foreign Minister and Prime Minister, which were not always harmonious. This study deals with the period between 25 April, 1974, when the Portuguese Revolution and the decolonization of Timor-Leste began, and 11 November, 1975, when the Whitlam government stepped down in less than a month before Indonesia’s full-scale attack against Dili on 07 December, 1975. The military occupation lasted for over two decades and led to the killings of a large number of people in Timor-Leste.

Willesee’s policy towards Timor-Leste deserves close attention for the following reasons. First, Willesee earnestly sought to resolve this crisis through the principle of self-determination. To this end, he considered the possibility of Timor-Leste’s independence and aimed to dissuade Indonesia from forcefully taking over Timor-Leste. On the other hand, Whitlam called for Timor-Leste’s integration with Indonesia, a view he repeatedly shared with President Suharto during their two informal summit talks in September 1974 and April 1975. Despite Willesee’s failure to persuade Whitlam and the Indonesian government, his ethical stance remains laudable. Second, through a speech delivered at the Senate on 30 October 1975, Willesee succeeded in persuading the Australian government to espouse “the view that the people of Portuguese Timor should be allowed to determine their own future.” Third, Willesee’s policy towards Timor-Leste has not received much scholarly attention. Fourth, it is possible to analyse Willesee’s policy by examining (i) documents created by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and (ii) other materials, including Willesee’s personal recollections.

In sum, this study argues that Willesee’s emphasis on self-determination could be a more viable strategy than Prime Minister Whitlam’s call for Timor-Leste’s integration with Indonesia. The study also argues that Indonesia’s invasion and forceful annexation of Timor-Leste might not have occurred if President Suharto had been persuaded by Willesee’s opinions. This is all the more important as President Suharto was initially hesitant to use military force to address Indonesia’s situation with Timor-Leste.

The author organized international symposium titled “Development of Data Archive and Its Impact on Asian Studies” at the annual meetings of Japan Association for Asian Studies on 25^th of June, 2017, which was financially supported by Kashiyama Foundation. In this symposium, four professors were invited as a guest speaker: they were Profs. Seokho Kim from Seoul National University (South Korea), Weidong Wang from Renmin University of China (China), Ronald Holmes from De La Salle University (Philippines), and Prof. Ryozo Yoshino from Institute of Statistical Mathematics (Japan), all of whom have been promoting projects on national data archive in their home countries.

Two discussants were also invited from the association: they were Profs. Akihiko Tanaka from National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and Nobuto Yamamoto from Keio University, who have their own views toward data archival projects in Asia.

Its transcript of discussion record is already open to the public on association’s official website, but its main arguments were not systematically analyzed.

After the symposium, the author had two other opportunities to organize similar international symposia, in which researchers on Asian studies who have been collecting chronological data exchanged information about their experiences and opinions. This paper will provide with information of research trends on extensive quantitative survey projects based on the arguments in the above mentioned three symposia.

Data archival projects in Asia started in 1980s, but they entered into a new stage since 2000s when ICT changed the situation dramatically. More concretely, Asian studies have started to develop new research areas (1) with solid empirical support by extensive data (2) through their linkage with policy-makers as well as (3) other types of available data, while they have come to face some difficulties and challenges including (4) securing privacy of informants, (5) lack of enough resources to develop / maintain data archive continuously, and (6) guarantee of comparability of data across countries.

Asian studies in different age have different missions and approaches, depending on how much data are available. It will be a more and more important question whether “foreign” researchers can contribute to the understanding of the researched countries in Asia which are creating their own data archive. Of course answers for this question must be diversified among researchers. Increasing importance of data archival projects is thus shedding light on the importance of exchanging ideas among Asian study researchers in and out of Asia.