This paper aims to analyze and identify successful national and regional policies in these lagging regions in Southeast Asia: the three Southern border provinces of Thailand, Mindanao in the Philippines and Papua in Indonesia. In particular, it will assess and compare the effectiveness of fiscal transfers, local empowerment policies as well as regional autonomy strategies in these regions.

The general conclusion of this paper is that providing a large amount of development funding and granting autonomous authority most likely required to enable these regions to keep up with the development of other areas in their countries. Appropriate affirmative action policies are needed to help solve the priority issues of national development such as urban-rural development divide and the gaps between the local and immigrant communities.