The East Asian Experience of
Economic Development and Cooperation

Kenichi Ohno

National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)
kohno@grips.ac.jp

December 2002

Prepared as a background paper for the RIETI/METI seminar on
September 1, 2002, on the occasion of the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. This paper was drafted
after intensive consultations with Japanese experts, officials andresearchers in Tokyo and Washington, DC. The author would like tothank them for valuable suggestions and comments. However, allresponsibility for the contents remains with the author alone.

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The East Asian Experience of
Economic Development and Cooperation

Economic development in East Asia has followed a remarkable pattern, unlike
any other developing regions in the world. In this paper, we would like to share
this experience with the reader, discuss remaining issues, and contribute to theglobal development strategy debate.
Performance of East Asia
During the last half century, the economic performance of the developing world
has been far from uniform. Developing countries were polarized into those thatmade great progress in catching up and those that were mired in stagnation. The
majority of the East Asian countries belong to the first group1.
The following phenomena have been commonly observed in East Asia. Some ofthese features are unique to this region.
 Diversity in ecosystem, population, ethnicity, religion, social structure, andpolitical regime.
 Equally great diversity in GDP, per capita income, and economic
development.
 High growth sustained over a long period almost throughout the region.
 Associated with this high growth are high savings and investment rates,
active but managed external opening, export orientation, industrialization,and general improvements in social indicators.
However, the path trodden by East Asia has not always been smooth. Somecountries failed to achieve high growth, and the region was hit by occasional
setbacks. East Asia has had its share of hardships in its history, with hot and cold
wars, social instabilities and economic crises.
Currently, East Asia faces not only the old problems of poverty and political strife
but also the new challenges posed by economic growth such as emerging income
gaps, environmental degradation, urbanization and congestion, and various social
evils. Furthermore, the countries in the region are under pressure to enhance
1

We define East Asia functionally, as those economies that are already taking part in Asian dynamism, or theregional production network linked by trade and investment, as discussed below. This includes Japan, China(including Hong Kong), Taiwan, Korea (ROK), Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, andVietnam. Some countries such as Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar are preparing to join this regional network.

1

domestic capabilities in order to avoid crises associated with globalization and tosustain growth into the next stages of development.

Figure 1
Per Capita Income (2000)

US$

40000

at Actual Exchange Rate
30000

20000

at PPP
10000

Cambodia

Lao PDR

VietnamIndonesia

China

Philippines

Thailand

Malaysia

Korea

Singapore

Hong Kong

Japan

0

Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators 2002 .

Growth Driven by Trade and Investment
For each country in East Asia, the long-term growth path and the achievement ofindustrialization can be tracked by income trends and structural shifts in GDP
and exports. However, the unique feature of East Asian growth is that it has been
attained through the very existence of East Asia as a powerful arena of economic
interaction among its members, and not merely by “market-friendly” policies orgood governance of individual countries alone2.
One by one, countries in different development stages realized economic growthby participating in the dynamic production network created by private firms.
Linked by trade and investment, a system of international division of labor withclear order and structure exists in the region. Under this system,

2

The World Bank’s Miracle report cited macroeconomic stability, human resource development, export orientation, andbenign government-business relationship as the causes of high performance in East Asia [World Bank 1993]. Later, in theaftermath of the Asian financial crisis, the Bank warned that growth would not return to East Asia unless institutions andpolicies are improved in each country [World Bank 2000]. However, evaluation of policies of individual countries is notenough to understand the sources of dynamism in this region. The future of East Asia critically depends on the sustained
vitality of the region as well.

2

industrialization has proceeded through geographic widening on the one handand structural deepening within each country on the other. Terms like the flying
geese pattern, structural transformation chain, and Asian dynamism refer tothese supply-side developments. To understand this mechanism, we must go
beyond individual countries to analyze the production structure, intra-regional
trade, and investment flows of East Asia as a whole.

Figure 2 Manufactured Exports(% of total exports)
100%
Japan
Taiwan80%

Korea
Singapore
Malaysia

60%

ThailandPhilippines
Indonesia

40%

China
Vietnam

20%

Myanmar

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

1979

1978

1977

1976

1975

0%

Source: ADB, Key Indicators of Developing Asian and Pacific Countries , 2001/1993; IMF, International Financial Statistics
Yearbook 1990 . For Japan, Japan Statistical Yearbook 2002/1999 , Statistics Bureau/Statistical Research and Training
Institute, Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, Japan.

For developing countries in East Asia, economic development was tantamount tobecoming one crucial link in this production network under competitive pressure
from and cooperative relations with neighboring countries and, through it,
upgrading their industrial capabilities from low-tech to high-tech. To initiate
development, they had no choice but to undertake international integration via
trade and investment. However, the integration strategies of latecomers like theASEAN4 and latest comers like Vietnam are different from those of the early
developers such as Japan, Taiwan and Korea.
East Asia as a region has offered a political, economic and social model and an
enabling environment for the catching up of latecomer countries. Every country
was under strong market pressure from above and below to constantly improvecapabilities and climb the ladders of development. What drove them were
national desire for material well-being and the demonstration of excellence fromneighboring countries, not conditionalities or policy matrices introduced byinternational organizations. No other developing region has formed such anorganic and dynamic interdependence as East Asia.
3For the Japanese economy, East Asia is the most important developing region.
For East Asia, too, Japan is a particularly important country as the largest donor
and the principal partner in trade and investment. Moreover, Japanese
corporations are the chief architects of the East Asian production network. Asian
dynamism has also been supported by the trade and investment relationship with
the EU and the US, as well as the extensive business network of Taiwan, Hong
Kong, and the overseas Chinese.
As the dominant ODA provider in East Asia, Japan has mobilized its extensive
tools for economic cooperation mainly to spur and complement the market-based
economic linkage. The majority of Japan’s ODA projects placed high priority on
assisting the self-help efforts of the East Asian developing countries to attain asuitable status in the region’s production network and, through it, catch up withthe forerunners and overcome social problems. Japan’s ODA in infrastructure,human resource development, technical assistance and intellectual support forpolicy formulation and institution building has greatly contributed to reinforcing
Asian dynamism by removing obstacles and generating new trade andinvestment flows. In fact, Japanese ODA projects have often been formulated in
response to the needs of the private sector in Japan or the East Asian developing
countries. The resulting economic prosperity and social stability in East Asia
have in turn brought significant benefits to Japan.
Figure 3-a

Figure 3-b

Foreign Direct Investment Flows

Trade in Machine Parts(Billions of USD / year)(Billions of USD / year)[1995-1996 average][1998]

Japan

Japan
8.5

2.4

29.9

2.6

NIEs

NIEs

15.3

8.7

21.7

8.5

ASEAN4ASEAN4

7.6

4.3

19.2

6.9
1.3

11.5

5.5
6.8

China

China
Source: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry,White Paper on International Trade 2002, p12.
Note: Flows less than $1 billion are not shown.
The “NIEs to China” flow excludes Hong Kong.

Source: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry,White Paper on International Trade 2001, p12.
Note: Flows less than $5 billion are not shown.

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The Roles of Government
To actively respond to the challenges from the regional and global networks as
described above, the developing countries in East Asia must undergo a greattransformation. While the main players of economic development are
undoubtedly private firms, simply deregulating and opening up the private sector
does not generate sufficient impetus for growth if the country is saddled with
underdeveloped markets, lack of human resources and technology, and low
productivity. In order to kick start an economy trapped in the vicious circle of low
income, low savings, and low technology, the role of government is crucial as anexternal agent imparting order and direction to the national economy.
The role of government envisaged by the World Bank has shifted dramatically,
from the unwarranted optimism in the early postwar period to the advocacy ofsmall government in the 1980s, the call for institution building in the 1990s, andthe more balanced view at present. But we must remember that the discipline
and activism of the East Asian governments were stipulated by theirdevelopment stages and the region’s needs. If the government fails to take certain
required actions, the country will remain stagnant as it cannot join the regional
production network. In the reality of East Asia, it is all too clear that isolation
leads to economic backwardness and that inability to cope with the problems
generated by growth destabilizes the society. The unproductiveness oflaissez-faire, as well as rigid control, is proven not theoretically but by the actual
examples of neighboring countries.

Good governance must also be redefined in the East Asian context. The usualcomponents of good governance, such as macroeconomic stability, structuralreform, administrative efficiency and transparency, social participation and thelike, do not necessarily coincide with the conditions needed for growth driven bytrade and investment. Among these, macroeconomic stability is certainly a must.
But for the other components, East Asia has achieved high growth without them.
It is probable that different and more sharply defined components of good
governance are required to initiate growth under international integration.
The most basic task of the East Asian governments is to establish a stable
political regime and social unity which are the preconditions of economic
development. For this purpose, most countries in East Asia have chosenauthoritarian developmentalism [Watanabe 1995], or authoritarianism with5

capability 3 . This regime, which is quite different from simple dictatorship,features (i) economic nationalism in pursuit of material prosperity; (ii) obsession
with external competitiveness under industrialization and export orientation;and (iii) top-down decision making under a powerful and economically literate
leader and a supporting elite group. Such a regime often emerged after a military
coup and under a severe threat to national security from within or without. Its
management is not necessarily “democratic” by Western standards. Evaluation ofthis regime varies. However, it is clear that the adoption of this regime was
motivated by the external and temporary need to initiate growth in the regional
environment. Since its value is historically conditioned, the very success of
economic development will in time deprive its legitimacy, forcing its exit and an
introduction of a more democratic regime. Such transition has already occurred in
the forerunner societies, including Korea and Taiwan.
Once social stability and policy consistency are attained as basic conditions, theEast Asian governments have three important roles to play.
First, the government must create a market economy. In the poorest or transition
countries, domestic markets are extremely primitive. In terms of productivity,
organization and human resources, such countries have not reached a stage
where mere deregulation can unleash the latent market power to sounddevelopment [Ishikawa 1990]. Each country must constantly and flexibly mix
market and government according to its development stage. Naturally, thismixing must be done by the government. To create a market economy, rules andframeworks such as laws, deregulation, privatization and free trade areimportant but not enough. The government must also pay attention to and takeaction on the real sector concerns, such as trade, investment, technology andindustrial structure. Competitiveness must be given pragmatic support andconcrete contents.
Second, the government must actively promote international integration while
managing its risks. In East Asia, as noted above, economic development andexternal integration are two sides of the same coin and must proceed in tandem.
Of these, integration is the primary action since it initiates growth byinternalizing Asian dynamism. The timing, sequencing and scope of opening up is
extremely important. Developing countries must design an integration timetable
which gives sufficient incentive for enterprise efforts while avoiding economic

3

The exceptions include Hong Kong which remained a free economy and the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos
which was a different type of authoritarianism without developmentalism.

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crisis and social instability. Here again, a delicate balance between liberalizationand protection is required, which cannot be guided by the general theory alone.
Third, the government must mitigate the negative aspects of growth. In addition
to the long-standing problems of poverty and income gaps, economic growth
creates a set of new problems. Foremost among them are emerging income gaps
among individuals, ethnic groups and regions. Environmental pollution, issues
associated with urbanization such as rural-urban migration, traffic congestionand housing shortages, and social evils such as crime, corruption, drugs andprostitution, tend to arise. Economic growth is sustainable only when theopportunities and fruits of growth are perceived to be shared equitably by thestandards of that society. When that is secured, the virtuous circle of economic
growth and social stability can begin.
We cannot say that the governments of the high-performing East Asian countries
fulfilled these three roles perfectly. But at least they did not make a fatal error in
any of these areas that could put them off the track of economic development.
Many factors have been cited to explain East Asian growth, including the highlevels of education and motivation, good government-business relationship,
export promotion, income equality, and so on. But these should be regarded as theconcrete achievements by individual governments for the purpose of executing
these roles well, not the causes of success. It is important to understand thetotality of historical and regional environment of East Asia and the basic
problems of development that it poses. Evaluation of individual policies inisolation or an attempt to directly transplant them on different soils is not very
useful.
The Roles of Regional Cooperation
The maintenance of Asian dynamism requires regional cooperation in addition topolicy efforts by individual countries. Free markets do not always guarantee thehealthy development of private trade, investment and production. Problems andcrises which are beyond private solutions will occur. Regional cooperation to avoid
or remove difficulties, support industries from the sidelines, and present visions
to reduce uncertainties have greatly contributed to East Asian development, andwill certainly continue to do so in the future. This can be construed as the
supplying of broadly defined international public goods.
Up to now, economic cooperation in East Asia has emphasized human resource7

development, building infrastructure, promoting small and medium enterprises
and “supporting industries,” creating various institutions for industrialization,
coping with negative aspects of growth, and intellectual aid on policy formulation.
These overlap with the priority areas of assistance by Japan, the top donor in
East Asia. Regional cooperation in East Asia has been characterized by open
regionalism in the sense that it did not discriminate against countries outside theregion. Cooperation has been promoted through voluntary action and peerpressure, not by forced conditionalities or uniform deadlines.
Economic integration in East Asia has been market-driven, with private activities
as primary and public policies as supplementary. This is very different frominstitution-driven integration such as the EU, NAFTA and MERCOSUR. In thissense, East Asia has already achieved the private linkages that other integration
schemes aim to create. Recently, however, new efforts in institution-driven
integration are being initiated to further accelerate or complement themarket-driven integration in East Asia. The Japanese government also shifted its
external policies from nondiscriminatory multilateralism to institution-driven
regionalism a few years ago [METI 2001, Urata 2002].
At present, the most important framework in East Asia is ASEAN plus Three(ASEAN+3) 4 . Other regional schemes, such as the ASEAN Free Trade Area
(AFTA), the Chiang Mai Initiative for central bank cooperation, the ASEAN
Regional Forum (ARF), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) are related to
ASEAN+3. Additionally, bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) between
Japan-Singapore, Japan-Korea, and so on are being concluded or negotiated.
Regional FTAs are also proposed between Japan-ASEAN and China-ASEAN.
In the future, the following topics are expected to be crucial for regional
cooperation (many of them are continued problems from the past):
 Regional peace and security as the precondition of prosperity Narrowing the gap in income and development stages between theearlycomers and the latecomers
 Promotion of globalization together with the reduction of its negative
influences (economic crises, emerging income gaps, and so on) Human resource development, institution building, and improving
governance in order to sustain growth4

The members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) include Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand,
Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. ASEAN+3 consists of these countries plus Japan,
China, and Korea.

8East Asian regionalism can also serve as a vehicle for transmitting the East Asianvision to the rest of the world. Although East Asia is extremely diverse,
something close to consensus occasionally emerges which is different from theviews of the Western countries or international organizations. For instance, many
East Asian countries are uncomfortable with the idea of unrestrained markets,
the IMF’s response to the Asian financial crisis, and the World Bank’s
development framework where poverty reduction is the only goal.
Institutionalized East Asia can be the framework for translating such uneasiness
into constructive proposals, to be projected to the rest of the world and influence
the policies of the international organizations.
In the age of globalization which began to accelerate in the 1990s, the policy tools
for Asian dynamism must be amended to reflect the new reality. Several decades
ago when Japan—and later, Taiwan and Korea—were rapidly industrializing,
infant industry protection was adopted, in which local enterprises were
strengthened under temporary protection. However, this policy is no longer
feasible because (i) early trade liberalization is required for all countries; and (ii)local firms in the remaining developing countries lack capability. But full and
immediate liberalization and external opening will not lead to the catching up ofthese latecomers. We need to come up with practical policy advice as to how
industrialization of these countries should be supported by public policies as well
as regional cooperation in the age of globalization. East Asia is an ideal place toinitiate this intellectual quest.
Economic Development and Poverty Reduction
Since 1999, the World Bank has promoted cutting poverty as the ultimate goal ofdevelopment and required all poor countries to draft a poverty reduction strategy
paper (PRSP) as its principal tool. The United Nations Millennium Summit in
September 2000 adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set ofnumerical social goals to be achieved by 2015. At present, poverty reduction
dominates the global development debate.
In East Asia, no country has adopted poverty reduction as the only goal innational economic development. A more balanced approach is favored, where
economic growth is pursued strongly while serious concern for social equity is alsoemphasized. It may be argued that this approach, rather than concentrating on
the narrowly defined poverty reduction, produced more remarkable results insocial development over the long run (though we do not deny that problems didarise in environment, congestion, income gaps and so on, and many East Asian9

governments were slow to act on them). It is generally agreed that there is noultimate solution to social problems (including poverty) without sustained
economic growth. This fact is also well understood in East Asia.
The United Nations’ MDGs and the World Bank’s PRSP, if applied uniformly, will
be inconsistent with the development strategies in East Asia. Strain is alreadyvisible in the PRSP of Vietnam, the first country to embrace this approach in East
Asia5. For those developing countries in East Asia which possess clear national
development visions and are striving to implement concrete policies to realize
them, economic cooperation should be provided to supplement and strengthen thenationally owned policy framework, rather than bringing in an entirely newprogram.
More generally, application of PRSP must be flexible enough to reflect thedifferent conditions of each poor country. For some countries, including Vietnam,
we can even ask whether PRSP is needed at all. The criteria for localizing PRSP
should include (i) the degree of dependency on aid and debt reduction, (ii) the
existence and quality of a national development plan (including whether it
effectively guides the budget and public investment); and (iii) causes of poverty.
According to these criteria, PRSP should be diversified flexibly and pragmatically.
Implications for Countries outside East Asia
Most people interested in East Asia are tempted to ask the question: are theselessons transferable to other regions, including Sub Saharan Africa? The answer
to this question must take a somewhat complex form, instead of a simple
Yes-or-No. Since situations in each country and region are different, it is easy tounderstand that direct replication of the East Asian model is unlikely to succeed.
In our opinion, the East Asian development experience and the Japaneseexperience of economic cooperation in the region can offer the following
suggestions for countries outside East Asia.
In the current development strategy featuring MDGs and PRSP, the close
relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction is widely recognized
as a general principle. At the operational level, however, budgeting and aid
5

For details, see GRIPS Development Forum’s information module, “Diversifying PRSP: The Vietnamese Model for
Growth-Oriented Poverty Reduction.” In the drafting process of Vietnam’s PRSP, a friction arose between the Vietnamese
government who considered this document subordinate to the existing national development plans and some donors who
tried to elevate the PRSP to the central instrument for budgeting and policy making. In the completed PRSP, this issue wasleft ambiguous. The World Bank highly evaluated the strong ownership of the Vietnamese government and lauded thisPRSP as “best practice.”10

modality discussions over pro-poor policies are quite active, while the formulationand implementation of growth strategies which are concrete, feasible and specificto individual poor countries have hardly begun. This imbalance should becorrected by strengthening the support for concretizing the growth strategy foreach poor country.
To realize growth through trade and investment, the criteria for good governancemust be redefined, as noted earlier. Similarly for donor countries, the selectivity
criteria for allocating aid resources across different developing countries need tobe revised as we shift the purpose of economic cooperation from improving health,education and environment to initiating growth under international integration.
For growth, political stability and social integration are absolutely necessary.
Beyond that, we need a strongly committed and economically literate leadership,a technocrat group to support it, an administrative mechanism to execute
economic policies consistently, and popular support for growth-oriented
development strategy.

At the level of individual policies, experiences are not transferable from East Asia
to Sub Saharan Africa, since these regions differ in degrees of social stability,
human resources and knowledge, and regional economic dynamism. However, themethodology of industrial research and policy formulation should be transferable6.
Japanese economic cooperation is characterized by the totality of vision,
long-term orientation, and real sector concerns. Respecting the uniqueness ofeach developing country, Japanese experts are interested in supporting the real
sector efforts, including industrialization, trade promotion, and improving skills
and technology, by combining different aid tools and from a total and long-term
perspective. They want to work with the developing countries as lasting partners
in good times as well as bad. This approach can complement short-term contractorientation, frequent performance reviews, and globally common frameworks
favored by the international organizations. It can supply patience and the respect
for individuality which are desperately lacking in the current global development
strategy. The ultimate goal of Japanese economic cooperation is to help
discover—and implement—the most suitable growth strategy for that particulardeveloping country, irrespective of whether it has an East Asian origin or not.
This idea can be applied to Sub Saharan Africa or any other region. We believethat one-time help and partial advice are of little use.
6

The Japan International Cooperation Agency implemented a large-scale and comprehensive policy support program toVietnam from 1995 to 2001. This program analyzed and advised on macroeconomic balance, fiscal and monetary policies,
agriculture and rural development, trade and industrial policy, state-owned enterprise reform, promotion of small andmedium enterprises, and response to the Asian crisis. Similar programs have been implemented in Mongolia, Laos, andMyanmar.

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However, much preparation will be required if Japan decides to commit itself tosuch long-term assistance in Sub Saharan Africa, where it has had little
intellectual engagement in the past. Domestic consensus for channeling aid toregions other than East Asia must also be formed. This is a challenging learning
process for Japan. If such aid is to be extended to other regions, Japan should first
select a very small number of target countries with highest potential for growthby the revised criteria for selectivity as discussed above. Strong national
ownership of the growth policy is a particularly important condition for selection.
Aid resources should be concentrated on these few countries rather than diffused
widely and thinly. A permanent policy research team should be established ineach selected country to engage in (i) constant policy dialogue with theauthorities; (ii) partnership with international organizations, other donors andNGOs; and (iii) policy inputs to Tokyo. Only after such a system is installed,
Japan can start to offer development assistance to other regions that is truly
characteristic of Japan, as described above.
Since other developing regions lack a regional production network as found in
East Asia, growth policies in the context of such regional dynamism must be
adjusted accordingly. We firmly believe that a single developing country without
regional advantages can also activate growth through trade and investment. For
example, strategies for primary commodity processing or light industries can be
designed and supported comprehensively, including marketing, distribution,organization, training, technology, and finance. Concrete entry points will differ
from country to country, and thus cannot be generally stated. Such assistancemust be provided not only bilaterally by Japan, but through multilateral channels
in cooperation with international organizations and other donors.

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References
Ishikawa, Shigeru [1990], “Underdevelopment of the Market Economy and theLimits of Economic Liberalization,” chapter 7, Basic Issues in Development
Economics, Iwanami Shoten (Japanese). English translation in K. Ohno
and I. Ohno eds., Japanese Views on Economic Development: Diverse
Paths to the Market, Routledge, 1998.
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry [2001], White Paper on International
Trade 2001.
Watanabe, Toshio [1995], Designing Asia for the Next Century, Chikuma Shinsho.
English translation (excerpts) in K. Ohno and I. Ohno eds., Japanese Views
on Economic Development: Diverse Paths to the Market, Routledge, 1998.
Urata, Shujiro [2002], “A Shift from Market-led to Institution-led Regional
Economic Integration in East Asia,” a paper presented at the Conference
on Asian Economic Integration by the Research Institute of Economy,
Trade and Industry (RIET), Tokyo, April.
World Bank [1993], The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy.
World Bank [2000], East Asia: Recovery and Beyond.

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