Trade and development in Southeast Asia

Abstract

In the gloomy prospect of the world economic recession of the early 1970s and 1980s, the developing countries were amazed to see the emergence and success of the Newly Industrializing Economies (NIEs) of East Asia -- South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. No one, in fact, was expecting that these four little poor resource economies, could gave a new development spirit to the developing world. The trade policies, which has being used effectively by the NIEs, began to be followed by the other developing countries; particularly in the South east Asian region. If the outward-oriented trade strategy was considered as the best strategy for the Southeast Asian countries, as well, what's kind of economic reforms should be made to make the strategy works e m The paper begins by assessing the economic performance of the Southeast Asian countries in the eighties. At the later stage, it analyzed the prospect, problems and policies of the outward-oriented strategy of the Southeast Asian countries.