Southeast Asia's Misunderstood Miracle

Southeast Asia's Misunderstood Miracle emphasizes the contribution of government intervention, especially selective industrial policy, to growth, structural change, and late industrialization in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Although government intervention has certainly been abused for private gain, it has also been crucial for the sustained rapid growth and structural change experienced in the region. Similarly, Southeast Asian resource wealth may have weakened the imperative to industrialize in the region, but inferior government intervention probably accounts for the relatively less impressive industrial achievements of the three countries. The study also stresses the significant contribution of regional economic dynamics, especially the increased role of direct foreign investment from Japan and the first tier, newly industrializing economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.Thus, the book qualifies, contradicts, and challenges some of the conclusions and policy recommendations of other works such as the World Bank's influential East Asian Miracle (1993), which suggested that other developing countries should seek to emulate the second tier Southeast Asian NICs rather than the first tier East Asian NIEs.