Strategies and Policies for Structural Transformation in Asia

During the last three decades the economic performance of the Asian developing countries has been spectacular. In the 1980s their overall growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) was 7.3 per cent compared with 6.5 per cent in the 1970s and about 5 per cent in the 1960s. However, the growth rates varied widely among the countries and have been accompanied by significant structural transformation of the economies in terms of the shares of GDP and employment originating in agriculture, industry and services. Both external and internal factors contributed to the high growth rates, their variations among countries and differences in structural transformation. The external factors included buoyant export markets caused by relatively high growth rates in industrial countries, a favorable international trading environment, and transfers of capital and technology to the Asian developing economies. Since all these countries faced the same external environment, differences in growth rates and structural transformation among them could be explained by internal factors such as differing resource endowments, sociocultural environment, growth strategies, economic policies and stages of development. Growth strategies and economic policies have been widely held to be the most important factors in explaining the high growth rates and rapid structural transformation in the countries and variations among them…