Abstract

‘National Strategies for Regional Integration: South and East Asian Case Studies’ examines how each country’s integration with its neighbours and more distant regional economies might be improved. The country cases illustrate the diversity of Asian development experience and offer lessons for other countries and regions interested in developing national strategies to foster regional integration.

Regional integration is gathering momentum in Asia. This study examines the diverse experience of regional integration of South and East Asian economies during the last two decades and offers lessons for latecomers. The global economic crisis is expected to merely dampen rather than halt the pace of Asian integration. Global recovery will give renewed impetus to Asian integration. East and South Asia include the world’s largest and most dynamic open economies alongside several least developed countries. Using a set of country cases based on a similar framework, the study addresses an important policy question: how can each country’s integration with its neighbors and more distant regional economies be improved? Of the eight country studies, five are from South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) and three are from East Asia (the People’s Republic of China, Thailand, and Singapore). The country cases—which differ by per capita income, country size and location—provide fascinating insights on the relationship between regional economic performance and strategies for regional integration at the country level.

Joseph Francois is Professor of Economics at Johannes Kepler Universität, Linz.

Pradumna B. Rana is a Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Ganeshan Wignaraja is Principal Economist at the Asian Development Bank, Philippines.