They can import capital goods duty-free and have access to the domestic market. They can lease industrial land for periods of at least thirty years. They can hire foreign personnel. And to bring back investments, they have to act as one. This is one lesson that the crisis has taught Southeast Asia - graphically, painfully.
Countries can no longer afford to act in isolation.
Increasingly, the age of globalization has brought with it the era of regionalism. Nations that are of less than continental dimension, countries that are less than the United States, China, India or Russia in size, have to coalesce in regions if they are to thrive in a globalized economy, if they are to survive in it. This is certainly true in the world of finance. And it quickly spread. There was no formal forum for the finance ministers to consult on what to do about impending or fundamental problems that they may see.