Income and HDI Convergence in the Mekong Economies : Regional Development Revisited

Developing countries in Southeast Asian Nations that have the connection to the Mekong River have been classified as a Mekong economy. They have different level of income with other ASEAN countries. The study has selected the Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand to test the convergence hypotheses. This paper attempts to investigate whether the gap of income among these countries will narrow over time and investigate the convergence of the human development in the Mekong Economy as well. The empirical results show that there is the sign convergence of income convergence among the Mekong economy. The HDI convergence has been also found. The study provides an insight into the integration of economy of Mekong who would be significant driver of economic growth and development in ASEAN