Commercial diplomacy has been seen as a very crucial tool in boosting and
develop a countries economy towards an extent. The commercial diplomacy activities
has many successful stories and result especially in European region where through this
commercial diplomacy, it can be seen that many countries able to develop further their
economies. The trend of implementing commercial diplomacy is blooming specifically
in ASEAN countries. Despite having many successful stories, many countries in
ASEAN region especially are not familiar or lack of implementing commercial
diplomacy in their country. In order to study the commercial diplomacy in ASEAN, two
countries had been chosen in this study which are Singapore and Vietnam. This is due
to the differences in dynamic and economic situation of this both countries as Singapore
is known as the developed country in ASEAN while Vietnam is still considered as a
developing countries. Many researchers viewed that developing countries does not
really prioritize commercial diplomacy as commercial diplomacy often deemed as a
less important branches of diplomacy. On the opposite, commercial diplomacy brought
many advantages to the country as it reduces unemployment rate, increases gross
monthly income, brought in more revenue to the government an many more. The
implementation strategies of commercial diplomacy for Singapore and Vietnam are
different from one another as both countries implement commercial diplomacy to make
used of their own strengths.
