Strategies for Industrial Development: Concept and Policy Issues

THE Asian-Pacific region covers a vast area on the globe, consisting countries with diverse social, economic and political characteristics at varying stages of industrialization. With the world economy at the crossroads, there is a likelihood that the more developed economies will see a slowdown in their growth, while the future outlook for some of the less developed economies remains bleak. However, many of the Asian-Pacific economies have witnessed remarkable growth over the past decade despite the downturn in the world economy. While, on the one hand, the global economic environment exhibits elements of constraints to economic growth in the future, it also contains enough opportunities and positive trends which, if fully exploited, could help support national efforts towards industrialization.

Bearing this in mind, the Asian and Pacific Development Centre gathered together decision-makers from the public and private sectors as well as researchers and academics from seventeen countries in the Asia-Pacific in an effort to foster economic development within the region. The aims of this seminar, "Strategies for Industrial Development: Concept and Policy Issues", are as follows:

- to identify and critically evaluate the development strategies and policies of the Asian newly industrialized economies (ANIEs) that may be applicable to other lesser developed countries in the region; and

- to create an awareness among policy-makers and planners of lesser developed countries of the potential applicability of the strategies and policies of the ANIEs to their own countries.

This edited compilation of the Proceedings includes a selection of the individual papers presented during this seminar, and it should be of interest to industrial policy-makers as well as academicians and researchers.