Song Ji Eun
Background
Song Ji Eun is from the two capital cities of Korea and Japan, which are respectively Seoul and Tokyo. She holds a double B.Sc. degree in Statistics and Economics, and M.A. in Economics with specialisation in Macro-Econometrics, from Korea University. During her undergraduate career, she studied one semester at Singapore Management University (SMU) as an exchange student. This worked as a cornerstone for her to develop a keen interest in Southeast Asia.
Ji Eun is a research member of the Korean Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (KISEAS) and served as Vice President of the Research Members Society of KISEAS for two years. She participated in the ASEAN-Korea Youth Network Workshop twice and the ASEAN-Korea Young Scholars Workshop. Prior to joining the Comparative Asian Studies Programme at NUS, she took on a role as a coordinator for the 4th Singapore-Korea Forum and the 2019 Network of East Asian Think-Tanks (NEAT) Working Group Meeting. She is also experienced in working at several research institutes in Korea relevant to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region.
Asian Languages
Ji Eun is a native Korean speaker and an advanced speaker of Japanese. She is also certified in intermediate Mandarin Chinese and speaks basic level of Bahasa Indonesia.
Research Interests
Ji Eun’s research interests revolve around the ASEAN Connectivity, especially in terms of the physical and institutional pillars supporting the concept of connectivity, which enables ASEAN countries to forge ahead together.
Her M.A. thesis was on the ASEAN economic integration and its impact on intraregional trade within the region. Formerly, her research was mainly based on quantitative methodologies from the econometrics; however, she now attempts to incorporate both quantitative and qualitative methodologies into her research involving ASEAN and Northeast Asia.
Particularly, Ji Eun currently concentrates on comparative analysis of the digital economy in South Korea and Singapore, and its contribution to the ASEAN Connectivity. She expects this topic will take its part as a strategic factor in building seamlessly connected ASEAN and overall Asia. She looks forward to adopting lessons from her studying to discover the implication of the digital economy on the sustainable economic development of Asia.
Recent Publications
Enhancing the ASEAN Connectivity: Building Consolidated Data Platform in Southeast Asia
The Future of ASEAN-Korea Partnership Vol.4, 2020