Global Change and East Asian Policy Initiatives

by World Bank Group (Editor)

Many East Asian economies have grown briskly in the past few years. However, future development will depend on the quality and timeliness of regional and national policy actions. The policy agenda must address the problems that buffeted the region in the late 1990s--associated with the weakness of domestic institutions and policies in the context of globalization. These problems include financial shocks, rapid shifts in the competitiveness of major exports, changes in international production networking, and significant reconfiguration in the geographical composition of production systems that had provided the foundation for growth.

Sustaining dynamism in East Asia requires policy initiatives that contain the risks from shocks and manage the ongoing shifts and changes in ways that enhance both the competitiveness of firms and the stability of the economies. 'Global Change and East Asian Policy Initiatives' provides specific policy responses that could be employed to navigate successfully through periods of economic, political, and technological turbulence.

The book is a collection of studies by leading experts in such fields as corporate and political governance, economic policy, globalization, higher education, legal reform, regional integration, and social protection. The studies reflect the most current thinking and research on global, regional, and national policies of relevance to East Asian economies. It is an important resource for policymakers, researchers and students interested in East Asia.

452 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2004

About the author

The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and most famous development bank in the world and is an observer at the United Nations Development Group. The bank is based in Washington, D.C. and provided around $61 billion in loans and assistance to "developing" and transition countries in the 2014 fiscal year. The bank's stated mission is to achieve the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and building shared prosperity. Its five organizations are the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

The World Bank's (the IBRD and IDA's) activities are focused on developing countries, in fields such as human development (e.g. education, health), agriculture and rural development (e.g. irrigation and rural services), environmental protection (e.g. pollution reduction, establishing and enforcing regulations), infrastructure (e.g. roads, urban regeneration, and electricity), large industrial construction projects, and governance (e.g. anti-corruption, legal institutions development). The IBRD and IDA provide loans at preferential rates to member countries, as well as grants to the poorest countries. Loans or grants for specific projects are often linked to wider policy changes in the sector or the country's economy as a whole. For example, a loan to improve coastal environmental management may be linked to development of new environmental institutions at national and local levels and the implementation of new regulations to limit pollution, or not, such as in the World Bank financed constructions of paper mills along the Rio Uruguay in 2006.