Financing Southeast Asia S Economic Development

This book examines the various policy options open to the ten countries of the region for improving and diversifying their financial resources. The Asian financial crisis exposed the vulnerabilities of Southeast Asia’s bank-based finance sector, and illustrated the pressing need to develop a more robust and multi-faceted financial infrastructure across the region. Looking ahead, sustained economic development in Southeast Asia will be constrained unless the region can embrace new sources of capital. Authored by experts in their respective fields, the chapters of this book examine such issues as the region’s current debt burden, the region’s banking sector since the 1997–98 crisis, micro-financing efforts in the region, new opportunities in project financing, developing venture capital capabilities, reviving foreign direct investment inflows, creating bond markets, developing the region’s lacklustre equity markets, and the potential benefits of financial integration.

This book analyses the growth, development and crisis experiences of the Southeast Asian economies, in particular, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- also known as ASEAN-5. The proposition is developed that the robust economic performance of the Southeast Asian economies during the past four decades has been attributed to the various factors, developments and independent national policies which have been pursued by the individual member countries rather than to any regional economic framework. The book covers eleven topics which is suitable for a one-semester course on the economics of Southeast Asia. Also, it has a narrower area coverage as it focuses only on the five economies, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. The sectoral treatment of the crisis impact and the analytical treatment of policy responses to the crisis differentiate this book from other publications on the same topic. Finally, the book provides an analysis of national developments, policies and factors which have contributed to the economic transformation of the respective Southeast Asian economies.

This volume addresses important issues to do with access to higher education and different models of its financing in the East Asia region. It is enriched by diverse perspectives from vastly different starting points and by the historical and institutional settings in the region. The issues are set out in the context of the value of higher education in economic development and how it contributes to the capacities to adopt and adapt to new technologies and undertake institutional innovation. The established and well-functioning higher education loan and financing systems, such as those in Australia, and the experience of different systems tried - both in East Asia and in the United States - are brought to bear in this volume.

Southeast Asia is going through tremendous changes. The market-oriented economies of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand have been showing robust growth, particularly before the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98. The transitional economies of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are also exhibiting signs of economic awakening and revival after years of internal political and social turmoil. Despite these encouraging signs, the region still has a long road ahead to achieve developed nation status. Southeast Asia: The Long Road Ahead is a serious and concise study on various important economic aspects of Southeast Asia. Existing economic studies on the region are mainly topical in nature. Most of the publications only attempt to offer a partial treatment of the issues and fail to examine these issues in a holistic manner. The objective of this book is to provide a more complete cross-country discussion on the economic issues and problems facing Southeast Asia. Besides critically examining the multiple facets of changes and problems that have been and will be encountered by Southeast Asia, the book also presents a lucid exposition on the prospects of the region. However, it does not stop there. It moves on to provide pointers and suggestions on how Southeast Asian countries should proceed with their development options and processes. The book should be of interest to economists, graduate students on Southeast Asia and all those who want to have a better knowledge and understanding of the important Southeast Asian region. In this latest edition, data were updated and new emerging trends explored. A significant portion of the text was redrafted so as to make this edition more compact and concise than the earlier ones. New “Suggested Discussion Topics” are added, and contemporary issues such as the Global Financial Tsunami, Asian economic integration and Michael Spence's World Bank Report are also dealt with. Sample Chapter(s) Chapter 1: The Land and Its History (362 KB) Chapter 2: Economic Diversity (354 KB) Chapter 3: Agriculture: Rice (341 KB) Request Inspection Copy

This book examines five countries in South East Asia that are instructive case studies of how the region has had to negotiate pathways of development beyond crises and traps. At two ends of just one decade, 1997–2007, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam all had to weather the shocks of an East Asian financial crisis and a global financial crisis. Some economies might have buckled completely under those shocks and been condemned to long-term stagnation. Yet these five economies, part of the larger Asian region, emerged with continued if slower economic growth. An important theme of this book is that their resilience has been partly derived from the pursuit of growth and competitiveness along less known or recommended pathways. The chapters of this book take a novel approach to South East Asia’s search for growth and improvement. They do not begin by evaluating how far macro-level performances would take a particular country towards high-income status. Instead they provide original insights into actual cases of intermediate ways of achieving growth, upgrading and income improvement in non-privileged sectors. Such cases may hold more relevant lessons for the majority of developing countries than the experiences of highly developed economies.

This book explores the way that forms of economic policymaking are sustained and challenged by everyday practices across Southeast Asia.

The term OC economic globalizationOCO has been discussed extensively in the popular press, by business executives and by policy-makers all over the world. While academic economists have made some excellent contributions to specific, technical aspects of economic globalization, there appears to be a need for economists to discuss the broader aspects of the issue in a more accessible manner. Failing this, the general debate will be informed only by the writings of non-economists. That is the motivation for this book, which is a collection of essays on various aspects of economic globalization in general, but with specific reference to Asia. Contents: Economic Globalization: Finance, Trade and Taxation: Economic Globalization and Small and Open Economies: Finance, Trade and Taxation; International Monetary and Financial Issues in East Asia: International Capital Flows and Regional Contagion: Boom and Bust in East Asia in the 1990s; Liquidity-Enhancing Measures and Monetary Cooperation in East Asia: Rationale and Progress; Choosing the Right Exchange Rate Regime for Small and Open Economies in East Asia; International Trade Issues in Asia: The Nexus Between Trade Liberalization and Poverty in Asia; India''s Decade-Long Trade Reforms: How Does It Compare with Its East Asian Neighbours? (with Rahul Sen); Singapore''s Drive to Form Cross-Regional Trade Pacts: Rationale and Implications (with Rahul Sen); International Trade in Infrastructural Services in East Asia: Telecommunications and Finance; International Tax Issues in Asia: Economic Globalization and Taxation: With Particular Reference to Southeast Asia (with Mukul Asher). Readership: Policy-makers, businessmen, professionals and others with an interest in international economic affairs and international economic policy."

This book investigates the impact of both real and financial integration to growth and to welfare, and to enquire whether increases in either or both forms build the linkage between the real and financial economy. It contributes to the following two areas: (1) Research of economic developments in East Asia, the most dynamic and populous region in the world, in itself is important for researchers, policy makers, journalists, business people and others. East Asia’s economic developments influence peoples’ lives not only in East Asia but also in other parts of the world. (2) Many aspects of East Asian experiences in economic development are unique, making research of East Asia attractive and important to discern mechanisms of economic development. The first part of this study begins with chapters that address the measurement of regional integration compared with the engagement with the global economy and how this influences the aggregate behavior of the economies. The second part turns to consideration of the financial sector and the efficiency and performance of banking in the region. This allows a discussion whether, in the current crisis, the banking sector was an important channel of financial shock into real behavior. The third part turns to the corporate sector. Using data on firms, type of finance used by firms, its impact on their performance, and ownership structure influence over the productivity growth are discussed. Based on the findings, the book presents several policy recommendation and future research agenda for further economic integration in East Asia.