ISAS Insights
No. 8 – Date: 25 October 2005 Institute of South Asian Studies Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library Building 1 Hon Sui Sen Drive (117588) Tel: 68746179 Fax: 67767505 Email: isaspt@nus.edu.sg Wesbite: www.isas.nus.edu.sg

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF TERRORISM ON THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN REGION 1
S. Narayan 2

Introduction

The most important sea-lane of communication (SLOC) in the Southeast Asian region is the Straits of Malacca, the main passage between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. It is 600 miles long and 300 miles wide on its western side. The length of the Singapore Straits, which connects Malacca with the South China Sea, is 75 miles, with an overall width of less than 12 miles. The Malacca and Singapore Straits provides the artery through which a significant proportion of global trade is conducted. Some 50,000 ship movements carrying as much as one quarter of the world’s commerce and half the world’s oil pass through these Straits each year.

The second SLOC is the wider and deeper Lombok. It is less congested than the Straits of Malacca, is quite often used as an alternative passage and is considered a safer route.

The third SLOC is the 50-mile long Straits of Sunda, another alternative to Malacca. Because the currents are strong and the depth of the water is limited, deep draft ships do not use these straits. The largest SLOC is the South China Sea. It stretches 1,800 nautical miles from Sumatra to Taiwan and is home to four principal island groups and three major zones of

1

2

This paper was presented at the “Homeland & Maritime Security Asia 2005” International Conference in Singapore on 12 October 2005. Dr S. Narayan is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, an autonomous research institute in the National University of Singapore. He is the former Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister of India.