Introduction: Growth and Structural Change in the Second-Tier Southeast Asian NICs

Abstract

In September 1993, the World Bank published The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy. Eight high-performing Asian economies (HPAEs) — Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia — achieved the highest growth rates in the world between 1965 and 1990. According to the report, the statistical chance of such success on a regional scale is extremely remote. Is East Asia growing rapidly as a region, or have many economies in the same region simply managed to get things right? What is East Asia’s success due to? The World Bank has dismissed the notion of an ‘East Asian model’ of development; instead, rapid growth in the HPAEs is attributed to the implementation of similar, market-friendly economic policies (World Bank 1993a: Chapter 6). The report concludes: in large measure, the HPAEs (high-performing Asian economies) have achieved high growth by getting the basics right... In this sense, there is little that is ‘miraculous’ about the HPAEs’ superior record of growth; it is largely due to superior accumulation of physical and human capital’ (World Bank 1993a: 5).