Escalating costs have made the accessibility of drugs one of the biggest challenges faced by the Malaysian government. The government agreed to regulate drug prices by means of external reference ...pricing, but its proposed policy had a setback owing to much opposition from the pharmaceutical industry. The policy did gain support from the public and from non-governmental organisations because it ensured easy access to affordable medicines. Comments from public consultations with key stakeholders were used to explore stakeholders' perceptions of the external reference pricing policy. A total of 140 comments were analysed for this study. Stakeholders' views were classified as being from the Socioeconomic, industrial, and government sectors. To summarise, the government must carefully manage and consider stakeholders' views to ensure a sound policy. Using Mendelow's stakeholder mapping, this study mapped out stakeholders' views in a systematic approach. The classification of different stakeholders' views and recommendations led to suggestions for reviewing current practices in pharmaceutical pricing regulations in the Malaysian healthcare system. The analyses can be extended to other countries that face similar concerns.
COVID-19 and Extended Reality (XR) Kwok, Andrei O. J.; Koh, Sharon G. M.
Current issues in tourism,
07/2021, Letnik:
24, Številka:
14
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Rapid advancement in immersive technology and the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic will catalyze Extended Reality in tourism. This research letter draws from Schumpeter's innovation theory to ...examine how the evolving market-driven factors arising from the magnitude of change in the tourism industry will accelerate innovation through creative accumulation and creative destruction for tourism enterprises leading to sustainable competitive advantage. Insights from this research letter contribute to how Extended Reality will reshape tourism and provide implications for tourism stakeholders.
The rise of blockchain technology could radically disrupt the global economy. As an emergent technology, blockchain is of broad and current interest in the tourism industry. Small island economies ...are at the forefront of adopting this digital asset and technology. For instance, the Caribbean economies are launching their first digital legal tender, and Aruba is developing a blockchain platform to boost tourism revenue. Given the velocity of adoption, blockchain technology holds significant implications for tourism development. This research letter provides a discourse on the adoption of blockchain technology among small island economies concerning the opportunities and potential challenges faced and offers practical implications for tourism stakeholders.
The advent of deepfake videos, a new form of media manipulation, took the world by storm. Malicious use of this technology for fraud, misrepresentation, and abuse created more perils than ...opportunities for various stakeholders. However, little is known about Generative Adversarial Networks utilized by deepfake to manipulate videos. Viewing from the social construction of technology theory, we explore the redress of the adversarial purposes of deepfake. At the moment, there are more misgivings than credence about the possible application of this technology. Our research note provides a discourse on the rapid advances of deepfake and its potential impact on tourism and raises the call for research on the beneficial uses of deepfake.
Income inequality has increased in China despite rapid economic growth. Income inequality could impinge on future development, leading to social tension or political instability. Our study ...investigates the short‐run and long‐run relationship between three important macroeconomic indicators—income inequality, economic growth and financial depth. We utilise a two‐step procedure of ARDL bounds and Granger causality for the analysis. The bounds test indicates the presence of a cointegrating relationship between income inequality, financial depth and economic growth in the long run. In the second step, we utilise the Granger causality approach. Results show a bidirectional causality between financial depth‐growth and a unidirectional causality between inequality‐growth in the short run. In the long run, results reveal that growth and financial depth determine Gini. Our findings provide support for the inequality‐widening effect due to economic growth and higher credit provided to the private sector. We find no evidence of inequality‐narrowing or income‐equalising effect in the long run for the period of study. It is possible that the government's inclusive growth policies which started less than a decade ago have not taken effect for us to capture the inverted U‐shape income equalising effect significantly.
The year 2022 marks the significance of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as the agreement enters into force after nearly one decade of negotiations. While the pandemic exposed ...the vulnerability of the tourism industry to the changing market reality, it also created an impetus for Asia-Pacific regionalism. The RCEP marks the first time a monumental trade agreement is ratified virtually, and member states will be the primary beneficiary given the correct response and strategy. Thus, the Asia-Pacific is set to become one of the fastest-growing regions in the coming decade as countries agree to enhance trade and investment. Our study examines the potential economic implications of the RCEP on tourism. We offer four interrelated proposals rooted in the tenets of tourism-led growth. Tourism researchers are encouraged to refine the propositions.
The year 2017 will be a crucial year for the tourism industry in Central Asia. The region is poised to benefit from a common regional tourism development program fostered by the Shanghai Cooperation ...Organization (SCO). Greater regional integration and closer interaction in three important areas (political, economic and social cooperation) are expected to be the catalyst for tourism development. The aim of this paper is to assess the progress undertaken by the SCO thus far, and to evaluate how the convergence of these three areas of cooperation would contribute to greater opportunities as well as challenges for tourism in Central Asia.
•This short communication contributes to an overlooked area in tourism management studies.•The tourism landscape in Central Asia is expected to change with greater economic integration.•The region will benefit from a common regional tourism development program.
Successful regional cooperation observed in many parts of the world has spurred global travel and tourism. The Southeast Asian region lies at the heart of this global integration with the ASEAN ...establishment. In 2017, ASEAN will celebrate its 50th golden year anniversary by launching the Visit ASEAN year. Surprisingly, to date not much progress is seen in promoting ASEAN as a single-destination area. The aim of this article is to assess the progress undertaken by the ASEAN establishment in terms of tourism development and evaluate the possible challenges of such intra-regional cooperation.
Globally income inequality is on the rise. With growing income inequality, market outcomes are no longer Pareto efficient as it is benefiting only a small group of individuals. Working with the World ...Values Survey data, this paper aims to provide an additional perspective on income inequality in Malaysia. We find evidence that individuals' underlying beliefs, ideologies and education level are important determinants of their attitudes toward income distribution. In addition, the paper concludes that individuals' preference for income distribution is significantly shaped by the experiences and economic condition in their local communities. States that are poorer and more ethnically diverse prefer more equal income.
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