ECONOMIC RESTRICTIONS IN THE CONSTITUTIONS OF ASEAN COUNTRIES

Country Economic restrictions in the Constitution

Singapore No specific economic restrictions on foreign investments

Indonesia The control of the State over its economy is worded only in general
statements, viz:

Article 33 of the Constitution of Indonesia provides:

Article 33 embodies the principle of economic democracy which states

that production is done by all for all, under the leadership of supervision
of members of the community.
Social prosperity is the primary goal, not individual prosperity. Hence,
the economy is organized as a common endeavour based on the
principles of the family system. The
form of enterprise which meets those conditions is the cooperative.

The economy is based on economic democracy which envisages

prosperity for everybody. Therefore, economic sectors which are
essential for the country and which
affect the life of the people, must be controlled by the state. Otherwise
the control of production might fall in the hands of powerful individuals
who could exploit the people.

Hence, only enterprises which do not affect the life of the general
population may be left to private individuals.
The land, the waters and the natural resources therein are basic assets
for the people's prosperity and should, therefore, be controlled by the
state and exploited to the greatest
benefit of the people.
Malaysia No specific economic restrictions on foreign investments
Brunei The sole provision pertaining to the economy can be found in Part XI
Miscellaneous par. 83, viz:

(1) Whenever it appears to His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan
that an occasion of public danger exists whereby the security or
economic life of Brunei Darussalam, or any part thereof, is threatened
whether by war or external aggression or internal disturbance, actual or
threatened, he may by Proclamation (hereinafter referred to as a
Proclamation of Emergency) declare a state of emergency either in the
whole of Brunei Darussalam or part of Brunei Darussalam as may be
specified in the Proclamation.
Thailand The control of the State over its economy is worded only in general
statements.

Section 83. The State shall encourage and support the implementation
of the sufficient economy philosophy.

Section 84. The State shall act in compliance with the following
economic policies:
(1) to support a free and fair economic system through market
mechanism and to promote the sustainable development of economies
by repealing and refraining from the enactment of laws and rules with
respect to the regulation of businesses which do not correspond with
economic necessity, and refraining from engagement in an enterprise in
competition with the private sector, except where necessary for the
purpose of maintaining the security of State, preserving common
interests, or providing public utilities;
(2) to encourage entrepreneurs to apply merits, ethics and good
corporate governance principles in carrying out of their businesses;
(3) to preserve monetary and financial disciplines in order to
strengthen the economic and social stability and security of the nation,
to improve the tax collection system to ensure fairness and compatibility
with changing economic and social conditions;
(4) to provide a comprehensive savings system for old age living to the
public and State officials;
(5) to regulate business activities to ensure free and fair
competition, prevent monopolies, whether direct or indirect, and
protect consumers;
(6) to undertake the fair distribution of incomes, and to protect, enhance
and extend occupational opportunities to the public for the benefit of
economic developments, including the promotion and support of the
development
of local wisdom and Thai wisdom for application to the manufacture of
goods, provision of services and engagement in occupations;
(7) to promote people of working age to obtain employment, to protect
child and woman labour, to provide a tripartite labour relations system
which entitles workers to elect their representatives, to provide social
security and to provide safeguards for workers working at equal value to
obtain wages, benefits and welfares on a fair and indiscriminate basis;
(8) to protect and maintain the manufacturing and marketing interests
of farmers, to promote the maximization of yields from farm products,
including the promotion of farmers associations in the form of a farmers
council in
order to carry out agricultural planning and the protection of their
mutual interests;
(9) to promote, support and protect the independent cooperatives
 system and associations of occupational or professional bodies as well as
associations of the public for the purpose of carrying out economic
activities;
(10) to provide basic utility services which are essential for the people’s
subsistence in the interest of maintaining the economic security of the
State and to prevent the private sector from monopolising basic utility
services which are essential for the people’s subsistence that may be
harmful to the State;
(11) to refrain from doing any act which may give rise to the
transfer of ownership of the infrastructure or fundamental network of
basic utility services which are essential for the people’s subsistence or
for national security to the private sector or which results in the State
holding less than a fifty-one percent share of ownership;
(12) to promote and support merchant marine, rail transportation,
including the operation of domestic and international logistics
management systems;
(13) to promote and strengthen private sector economic
organisations at national and local levels; and
(14) to promote the agricultural product processing industry in order to
create economic added value.
Cambodia Economic provisions are general and leave the nitty gritty to the
legislature.

Article 56.
The Kingdom of Cambodia implements the market economy system.
The organization and the functioning of this economic system shall be
determined by the law.

Article 57.
Tax can be collected only when it is authorized by a law. The national
budget shall be laid down and carried out in accordance with the law.

The monetary management and the financial system shall be

determined by the law.

Article 58.
State property notably consists of land, underground, mountains, sea,
sea-bed, undersea-bed, coastline, airspace, islands, rivers, canals,
streams, lakes, forests, natural resources, economic and cultural centers,
national defense bases, other building facilities belonging to the State.

The administration, the utilization and the assignment of State’s

properties shall be determined by the law.
 Article 59.

The State shall preserve and protect the environment and the balance of
natural resources, by organizing a precise planning for the management,
especially of the land, water, atmosphere, air, geology, ecological
systems, mines, energy, petroleum and gas, rocks, sand, gems, forests
and forest by-products,wildlife, fish and aquatic resources.

Article 60.

Citizens have the right to freely sell and exchange their own products.
The obligation to sell products to the State or the appropriation, even
temporarily, of private riches or possessions by the State shall be
prohibited, except under conditions specially authorized by the law.

Article 61.

The State shall promote economic development in all fields, especially in

agriculture, handicraft, industry, to begin with the remotest areas, with
concern for water policy, electricity, roads and means of transportation,
modern techniques and credit system.

Article 62.
The State shall be concerned with resolving the means of production,
sustaining the prices of agricultural and handicraft products, and helping
find markets for these products to be sold.

Article 63.
The State shall attend to regulating the markets in order o secure a
suitable living standard for the citizens.

Article 64.
The State shall forbid individuals to import, manufacture or sell illicit
drugs, counterfeit products, expired goods harmful to the consumers’
health and life, and shall severely punish them.

Myanmar The control of the State over its economy is worded only in general
statements.
Vietnam The control of the State over its economy is worded only in general
statements.
Article 50
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam builds an independent and self-reliant
economy which shall promote its internal resources, international
integration and cooperation and closely connects with cultural
development, practices social progressiveness and equality, protects the
environment and exercises industrialisation and modernisation of the
country

Article 51
1. The Vietnamese economy is a socialist-oriented market economy with
multi-forms of ownership and multi-sectors of economic structure; the
state economic sector plays the leading role.
2. All economic sectors are important constituents of the national
economy. Participants in different economic sectors are equal,
cooperate and compete in accordance with the law.
3. The State encourages and provides favourable conditions for
entrepreneurs, enterprises and individuals and other organisations to
invest, produce and do business; contribute to the stable development
of the economic sectors and national construction. Legal possessions of
individuals, organisations of investment, production and business are
protected by the law and are not subjected to nationalisation.

Article 52
The State constructs and perfects economic institutions, coordinate the
economy on the basis of respecting market rules; exercises delegation,
decentralisation and separation of authorities in state management;
promotes the connection of regional economies and guarantee the unity
of the national economy.

Article 53
The land, water resources, mineral resources, resources in the sea and
airspace, other natural resources and property invested and managed by
the State are public properties, coming under ownership of the entire
people represented and uniformly managed by the State.

Article 54
1. Land is a special resource of the nation, an important resource of
national development and is managed in concordance with the law.
2. Organisations and individuals are entitled to land assignment, land
lease, and recognition of the land use right by the State. Land users have
the right to transfer the land use right, and practice related rights and
duties in concordance with the law. The land use right is protected by
the law.
3. The State shall recover land used by organisations and individuals in
imperative cases provided by the law for the purposes of national
defence, national security and socioeconomic development in the
national and public interests. The recovery of land must be public,
transparent and compensations must be provided in concordance to the
 law.
4. The State shall effect acquisition of land, provided for in law, in cases
of urgent demands and extreme necessity with respect to the
implementation of the businesses of national defence, national security,
or wars, emergency, prevention of and protection against natural
calamities.

Laos The control of the State over its economy is only worded in general
statements.

Chapter II: The Socio-Economic Regime

Article 13 (New) The national economy of the Lao People’s Democratic

Republic relies on a stable multi-sectoral economy which is encouraged
[by the government; such economy shall] expand manufacturing
capacity, broaden production, businesses and services, transform the
natural economy into a trading and manufacturing economy, and
6entraliz; [while] combining with regional and global economies to
stabilize and develop the national economy continuously and to improve
the material and spiritual living conditions of the multi-ethnic people.
All types of enterprises are equal before the laws and operate according
to the principle of the market economy, competing and cooperating with
each other to expand production and business while regulated by the
State in the direction of socialism.

Article 14 (New) The State promotes the investment by all domestic

economic sectors in production, businesses and services, to contribute
to the industrial transformation and modernization of, and to develop
and strengthen, the national economy.

Article 15 (New) The State promotes foreign investment in the Lao

People’s Democratic Republic, [and] creates favorable conditions for the
injection of capital, for the use of technology and for introducing
modern types of management into production, businesses and services.
The lawful assets and capital of investors in the Lao People’s Democratic
Republic shall not be confiscated, seized or 6entralized6 by the State.

Article 16 The State protects and promotes all forms of property rights:
State, collective, private domestic and foreign investment in the Lao
People’s Democratic Republic.

Article 17 (New) The State protects the property rights (such as the
rights of possession, use, usufruct and disposition) and the inheritance
rights of organisations and individuals. Land is a national heritage, and
 the State ensures the rights to use, transfer and inherit it in accordance
with the laws.

Article 18 (New) The State manages the economy in accordance with the
mechanism of the market economy regulated by the State, to implement
the principle of combining 7entralized management through the
consensus of central authorities with the delegation of responsibilities to
local authorities in accordance with the laws and regulations.

• Protection of environment

Article 19 All organisations and citizens must protect the environment

and natural resources: land surfaces, underground [resources,] forests,
animals, water sources and the atmosphere.

Article 20 (New) The Lao People’s Democratic Republic implements open

policies on economic cooperation with foreign countries in different
ways, on a multilateral basis and in different forms on the basis of the
[following] principles[:] respect for each other’s independence,
sovereignty, equality and mutual benefit.
Article 21 (New) The State attaches great importance to the
development of the economy in conjunction with cultural and social
development by giving priority to human resource development.

Country Economic restrictions in the Constitution

Japan No specific economic restrictions
China The control of the State over its economy is worded only in general
statements

Article 6 [Socialist Public Ownership]

(1) The basis of the socialist economic system of the People's Republic
of China is socialist public ownership of the means of production,
namely, ownership by the whole people and collective ownership by
the working people. The system of socialist public ownership
supersedes the system of exploitation of man by man; it applies the
principle of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his
work".
(
2) During the primary stage of socialism, the State adheres to the basic
economic system with the public ownership remaining dominant and
diverse sectors of the economy developing side by side, and to the
 distribution system with the distribution according to work remaining
dominant and the coexistence of a variety of modes of distribution.

Article 7 [State Economy]

The State-owned economy, that is, the socialist economy under
ownership by the whole people, is the leading force in the national
economy. The State ensures the consolidation and growth of the
State-owned economy.

Article 18 [Foreign Enterprises]

(1) The People's Republic of China permits foreign enterprises, other
foreign economic organizations, and individual foreigners to invest in
China and to enter into various forms of economic co-operation with
Chinese enterprises and other economic organizations in accordance
with the law of the People's Republic of China.

(2) All foreign enterprises and other foreign economic organizations in

China, as well as joint ventures with Chinese and foreign investment
located in China, shall abide by the law of the People's Republic of
China. Their lawful rights and interests are protected by the law of the
People's Republic of China.
India Covers only general statements

39. The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing—
(a) that the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an
adequate means of livelihood;
(b) that the ownership and control of the material resources of the
community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good;
(c) that the operation of the economic system does not result in the
concentration of wealth and means of production to the common
detriment;
(d) that there is equal pay for equal work for both men and women;

46. The State shall promote with special care the educational and
economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in
particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall
protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation