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Introduction: Southeast Asia: Region on the Rise
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17852 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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3 / 1990 |
451 Words |
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As dynamic development in Europe hit the front pages around the world, a smaller revolution has been taking place across the Pacific: the creation of the Pacific Community. Formally calling itself Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Pacific Community is modeled on its European counterpart.
Although APEC's members include the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia, it is the latter five that have turned economic heads in the last several years. Those five, and the small, wealthy nation of Brunei, comprise the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). And it is ASEAN's combined growth that has spurred the creation of this new Pacific Community and, if it continues, new economic "Tigers."
In this report, Dalton West of the Global Strategy Council examines APEC and the previous attempts at creating a Pacific bloc. As with past attempts, many analysts give this initiative little chance for success due to the divergent cultures. West argues that the recent steady growth and interaction of the economies in the region suggest substantial cooperation many finally be achieved.
What role will ASEAN play? South east Asian specialist Frank Tatu writes that "as the much-touted Pacific Century approaches, the miracle eco-economic development around the Asian Rim continues a pace with few signs of abatement." Singapore is already a clearly defined Tiger, and the remaining ASEAN members are well on their way, with Malaysia and Thailand coming up quickly on Singapore's heel.
Will Thailand play an increasingly important role in Southeast Asia? Thai professor Eugenia Kagawa writes that 1989 could be remembered as the year that Thailand, with an 11 percent growth rate, economically outperformed the rest of the world. In its own quiet revolution, Thailand has determined to turn Indochina's battlefields into market places. And because it has established political stability, Thailand has attracted tremendous amounts of foreign investment, a commodity sorely needed in the ASEAN states.
The very lack of stability prevents the Philippines from reaching its full, prosperous potential. With Philippine leader Corazon Aquino facing a possible seventh coup, Insight writer Richard Martian notes that foreign investors have placed funds on hold until the smoke clears. But even with slowed growth in 1990, the Philippines still has an overall constant annual
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