Innovative East Asia : The Future of Growth

This is the main volume in a series of publications based on a study cosponsored by the government of Japan and the World Bank to examine the future sources of economic growth in East Asia. The study was initiated in 2000 with the objective of identifying the most promising path to development in light of emerging global and regional changes, signaled by the crisis of 1997-98 and the challenges faced by the crisis-hit countries as they sought to resume rapid growth. This volume explores each issue and consequent policy choices in greater detail. The principal message is that sustained economic growth in East Asia will rest on retaining the strengths of the past -stability, openness, investment, human capital development- on overcoming the sources of current weakness in financial, corporate, judicial, and social sectors, and on implementing the changes required by the evolving economic environment. East Asia needs to sustain its hard-earned stability by recalibrating its fiscal and exchange rate policies. Strengthening social safety nets and governance, and invigorating financial, regulatory, and legal institutions. Yet these are only preconditions; future economic performance will depend on keying growth to productivity.