East Asian Development : Asia

There were many changes and continuities in East Asia, in the relationship of religion and politics from 1450-1750. One main change is the “kaozheng”, or research based on evidence; which led to much critisism of the Neo- Confucian orthodoxy. A main continuity was the system of Neo- Confuciasm, which continued during the Ming and Qing dynasties in China.

How did East Asia become so successful? The countries all had a rough start at the beginning, but who didn’t? In the late 1990’s Eastern Asia were struggling to make ends meet. Most countries in Eastern Asia begin making money by agriculture. East Asia propelled into the world with more and labor and growth and put themselves on the map.

After the end of the World War II the world faced the challenges of economic and social recovery. The majority of developing countries based their economies on Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI), the state-oriented approach to a trade and economic policy. ISI supports the replacement of import with domestic production in order to reduce foreign dependency. This protectionist policy dominated in developing countries, especially in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, during the first 30 years after the World War II. By 1980s, when the main gains of ISI were exhausted and it demonstrated its inefficiency, the countries of East Asia adopted a new development strategy. Consequently, this new export-oriented and market-friendly strategy, so-called East Asian model, has determined the successful economic and trade policy of East Asian countries during the next several decades. To understand the reasons of the shift from ISI to the East Asian model, it is needed to carefully examine and contrast these two approaches and their supporting theories.

The consequences of the reformed trade agreements were that exports grew by 27% annually and China’s economy grew substantially in subsequent years. The real GDP growth rate increased from 10%- 11% annually. China’s economy had steadily been growing since the late 1970’s as a result of the government’s economic strategies. The strategy which the government subscribed to was an export-led growth strategy. China strengthened its domestic markets and improved its relationships with countries to foster this export-led growth which attributed to the strong GDP growth rate in consecutive years since 1970. Productivity drastically increased in China as a result of the reallocation of capital and labor to more productive uses. There was also a migration of people from rural to coastal regions where there were more resources and opportunities for growth. The labor productivity in China outpaced every other country in the world and the country averaged a 9.5% annual productivity rate between 1997 and 2010. The export-led growth strategy and the increased labor productivity rate were some of the key elements which impacted the strong GDP growth rate.

In this essay we look in-depth on how government strategies and economic policy play a crucial role in the success of High Performance Asian Economies (HPAEs) during 1960 to 1990 (World Bank 1993).There are eight countries within HPAEs: South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan. Its economic development has significantly rise that it was name ‘East Asia Miracle’ (World Bank, 1993).

Trade policy in developing countries obtained major influence from the changing views in economic development, namely, inward looking and outward looking (Moon, 1998). For about 3 decades after World War II (WWII), the trade policy of developing countries relies on inward-looking development. This type of development is implemented through autarky trade policies to protect country’s local manufacture industry. There are so many critics delivered during the inward looking development implementation. Then, around eighties, most of developing countries started to change its trade policies in to more outward-looking policy. Those two policies conflicts each other’s. One emphasizes the importance of the principle of comparative advantage, campaigning free market and export oriented policies, while the other highlights to foster domestic market through Import Substitution Industrialisation (ISI).

Since the 1960s, Asia has become richer quicker than any other region across the world. China and the High Performing Asian Economies (HPAE) have been the fastest growing economies ever, demonstrating phenomenal economic growth in the years between 1965 and 1990. Compared to large parts of Asia Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, the HPAE’s have been highly successful at achieving high growth rates. Most of this success can be attributed to the staggering growth in Japan, the four tigers including Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Taiwan as well as the NIE’s of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Controversial issues have been raised in relation to the affiliation between the government, the private sector and the market. As a consequence of the coexistence of public policies and rapid growth in some of the HPAEs particularly Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. Moreover government intervention within these economies has been a necessity to promote development.

The so-called East Asian Development Model was devised as a reaction to sustainably high growth rates in many East Asian countries in the post-World War II period and particularly in the last 40 to 50 years. Generally, there are two competing models of economic developments for developing countries: On the one hand import-substitution industrialisation (ISI) and on the other hand export-led industrialisation (ELI). Many Latin American and African countries favoured the former after the Second World War and erected trade barriers, introduced tariffs and tried to promote local industries. In the first couple of decade particularly South Asian (India) and Southeast Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam) also applied this model to a certain extent.

For about twenty years, East-Asian countries were held up as economic idols. They were hailed as the ideal models for strong economic growth of developing countries because of their high savings and investment rates, autocratic political systems, export-oriented business, restricted domestic markets, government capital allocation, and controlled financial systems.

Every day in shops we can find food which was produced all around the world and what is more we can easily buy them without having to go abroad. Above mentioned example is the result of the declining trade and investment barriers between countries.

After the World War II, the United States led the European countries to establish the World Bank (IBRD), which helped the reconstruction of Europe. And in the meanwhile, the United States led Japan, China and some other Asian countries to establish the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the reconstruction of Asia after the war. IBRD, ADB and IMF (International Monetary Fund), etc. occupy the monopolistic and predominant status all around the world for several decades. In the other words, they dedicate the economic and the political tendency all over the world. However, there are many problems and unreasonable terms for the debit and credit, investment, financing and so on, which are related to the political reasons, exist in IBRD, ADB and IMF. These restricts influence the development of those Third World countries severely. Along with some other reasons and details, in October 2013, China put forward suggestions to establish Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multilateral development organization with 100 billion authorized capital, which supports the infrastructure development for Asian countries especially, and the headquarter is set up in Beijing, China. This initiative bring huge competitions among the United States, China and Japan. After October 2014, the competitions spread and expand, in which some European countries are involved as well. The establishment of AIIB is not only the economic development and breakthrough, but also related to the political

“The (Asian and Pacific) region remains host to over half of the world’s slum population...At the same time, the percentage of urban population living in slums (these are households with no durable housing, insufficient living area, no access to water nor sanitation) has skyrocketed since 1990 and reached 30.6 per cent in 2010 (about 500 million people). Poverty is now growing faster in urban than in rural areas.”

The South-east Asia is prone to trpical cyclone from a very long time.the country of myanmar experienced several cyclonic storms in the past.The cyclone Nargis which hit the myanmar in 2008 is the worst disaster recorded in the history of myanmar.In this assignment I tried to examine the causes & consequences of cyclone Nargis.The cyclone severly affected the Ayeyarwaddy & Yangon divisions of the country.

Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN), a 10-member organization established in August 1967, moves toward a deeper integration through creating a unified community in political, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of the region. It is a region of great diversity but most countries have achieved rapid economic development for the most of the past 25 years. Its diplomacy and cooperation are characterized by caution, pragmatism, and consensus-based decision making – the “ASEAN Way” (Ponciano Intal, et al., 2014). Taking steps to achieve their goal and embracing its motto, “One Vision. One Identity. One Community.” the organization established the ASEAN Economic Cooperation (AEC) in 2015. This aims to promote an all-inclusive cooperation across the region, gearing towards making South East Asia a globally competitive single market and production base characterized by: free flow of goods, services, investments, skills, and capitals. Moreover, it intends to form a region of equitable economic development integrated into the global economy (The ASEAN Secretariat, 200)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand in 1967. Today, it consists of 10- member states with the addition Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. The region now moves forward for deeper integration of creating one community in terms of political- security, economic and socio-cultural aspects. As ASEAN continually evolves, it still upholds its defining principle, the “ASEAN Way”.