Regionalism, protectionism and sustainability of regional growth

Abstract

For the first time in a decade, there are concerns in the air about sustainability of the exemplary performance of the economies of this region. The most obvious symptom, and the cause of the most immediate concern, is a sharp drop in export growth in many of the fastest-growing "export-led" economies of Southeast Asia. What has become abundantly clear is that major structural adjustments are now required for these economies to mature into modern, industrialized members of the global economy. Malaysia, in developing a new "post industrial master plan" strategy, has placed itself at the forefront of regional thinking on this issue.