Latest Edition: Southeast Asia: The Long Road Ahead (3rd Edition) Southeast Asia is going through tremendous changes. The market-oriented economies of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand have been showing robust growth, particularly before the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98. The transitional economies of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are also exhibiting signs of economic awakening and revival after years of internal political and social turmoil. Despite these encouraging signs, the region still has a long road ahead to achieve developed nation status. Southeast Asia: The Long Road Ahead is a serious and concise study on various important economic aspects of Southeast Asia. Existing economic studies on the region are mainly topical in nature. Most of the publications only attempt to offer a partial treatment of the issues and fail to examine these issues in a holistic manner. The objective of this book is to provide a more complete cross-country discussion on the economic issues and problems facing Southeast Asia. Besides critically examining the multiple facets of changes and problems that have been and will be encountered by Southeast Asia, the book also presents a lucid exposition on the prospects of the region. However, it does not stop there. It moves on to provide pointers and suggestions on how Southeast Asian countries should proceed with their development options and processes. The book should be of interest to economists, graduate students on Southeast Asia and all those who want to have a better knowledge and understanding of the important Southeast Asian region.

Southeast Asia is going through tremendous changes. The market-oriented economies of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand have been showing robust growth, particularly before the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98. The transitional economies of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are also exhibiting signs of economic awakening and revival after years of internal political and social turmoil. Despite these encouraging signs, the region still has a long road ahead to achieve developed nation status. Southeast Asia: The Long Road Ahead is a serious and concise study on various important economic aspects of Southeast Asia. Existing economic studies on the region are mainly topical in nature. Most of the publications only attempt to offer a partial treatment of the issues and fail to examine these issues in a holistic manner. The objective of this book is to provide a more complete cross-country discussion on the economic issues and problems facing Southeast Asia. Besides critically examining the multiple facets of changes and problems that have been and will be encountered by Southeast Asia, the book also presents a lucid exposition on the prospects of the region. However, it does not stop there. It moves on to provide pointers and suggestions on how Southeast Asian countries should proceed with their development options and processes. The book should be of interest to economists, graduate students on Southeast Asia and all those who want to have a better knowledge and understanding of the important Southeast Asian region. In this latest edition, data were updated and new emerging trends explored. A significant portion of the text was redrafted so as to make this edition more compact and concise than the earlier ones. New “Suggested Discussion Topics” are added, and contemporary issues such as the Global Financial Tsunami, Asian economic integration and Michael Spence's World Bank Report are also dealt with. Sample Chapter(s) Chapter 1: The Land and Its History (362 KB) Chapter 2: Economic Diversity (354 KB) Chapter 3: Agriculture: Rice (341 KB) Request Inspection Copy

Southeast Asia: The Long Road Ahead is a serious and concise study on various important economic aspects of Southeast Asia. Existing economic studies on the region are mainly topical in nature. Most of the publications only attempt to offer a partial treatment of the issues and fail to examine these issues in a holistic manner. The objective of this book is to provide a more complete cross-country discussion on the economic issues and problems facing Southeast Asia. Besides critically examining the multiple facets of changes and problems that have been and will be encountered by Southeast Asia, the book also presents a lucid exposition on the prospects of the region. However, it does not stop there. It moves on to provide pointers and suggestions on how Southeast Asian countries should proceed with their development options and processes. The book should be of interest to economists, graduate students on Southeast Asia and all those who want to have a better knowledge and understanding of the important Southeast Asian region.

Southeast Asia has long fascinated development practitioners and researchers for being one of the few regions of the world that has resisted global trends to become a successful developing region. Divided into accessible thematic chapters, this book adopts a unique perspective of equitable development to outline the strengths and weaknesses of the transformations taking place in the Southeast Asian region. Focusing on four key themes: equality and inequality; political freedom and opportunity; empowerment and participation; and environmental sustainability, these concepts are used to explore Southeast Asian development and trace the impacts that the growing popularity of market-led and grassroots approaches are having upon economic, political and social processes. Whilst the diversity of the region is emphasized so are some of the homogenizing trends such as the concentration of wealth and services in urban areas and the subsequent migration of rural people into urban factories and squatter settlements. The ongoing commercialization and industrialization of rural agriculture as well as the expansion of non-farm income earning opportunities in rural spaces, and the alarming rates of environmental degradation which threaten health and livelihoods are also exposed. In highlighting how Southeast Asian development is unevenly distributing wealth, opportunities and risks throughout the region, this book emphasizes the need for creative new approaches to ensure that benefits of development are equitably enjoyed by all. Including illustrations, case studies and further reading, this book provides an accessible up-to-date introductory text for students and researchers interested in Southeast Asian development, development studies, Asian studies and geography.

Why are some nations rich and others poor? Why do the citizens of some countries lead a happy, prosperous life while others struggle in terrible want?This book takes the reader through the eventful life journey of one of Singapore's best known economists and educators, Professor Lim Chong Yah. Born in Malacca, the author planted tapioca to feed himself and his family, caught fish in paddy fields and was thrown in jail as a 10-year-old during the war. He fought to win a Commonwealth scholarship to get a decent education, met the love of his life at a Chinese New Year party, became a Professor at two of the best universities in Asia, and went on to write one the most widely-used economics textbooks of the time, Elements of Economic Theory.At 84, Lim Chong Yah is as feisty, indomitable and curious as when he was a small, cheeky boy catching fighting fish in those paddy fields. And he still asks the fundamental question of how each of us can make a difference.

This important book comprises insightful papers on lessons learned from some major exchange rate and monetary experiences in Asia, exchange rate crisis management in Asia and choice of exchange rate systems in Asia. Originally published in the Singapore Economic Review, Vol. 52, No. 3, 2007, it deals primarily with the exchange rate systems and policies in the three largest economies in Asia: China, Japan and India. It also contains a paper on Singapore's exchange rate system, whose success could make it a role model for other small open economies. Notable contributors include Ronald McKinnon and John Williamson, among others. The editor is the original designer of China's latest exchange rate system reform.

No part of the world has been affected more by globalization in recent decades than Southeast Asia. This has led many observers to believe that the region’s present experience with globalization is at once unprecedented, inevitable, and irreversible. Professor Peter A. Coclanis challenges such beliefs, and, in so doing, provides a history of globalization in Southeast Asia over the past two millennia. Employing Stephen Jay Gould’s famous temporal metaphors — time’s arrow and time’s cycle — Coclanis traces the trajectory of globalization, arguing that globalization has ebbed and flowed in the region over the centuries, that globalization is best viewed as a process rather than a permanent condition, and that its effects have differed considerably across space and over time. Professor Peter A. Coclanis is Associate Provost for International Affairs and Albert R. Newsome Professor of History and Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was Raffles Visiting Professor in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore in 2005.

This book is a spin-off from a highly successful seminar series jointly organized by the Division of Economics of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) of Singapore. The seminars discuss contemporary domestic and regional economic issues and public policies that are relevant to the everyday lives of Singaporeans. The wish to introduce these economic issues to a broader audience outside the confinement of a lecture theatre, came to fruition, with the completion of this book.This book contains 13 chapters that are grouped under three sections. Under the section, OC Public Policies and Economic Issues of SingaporeOCO, Singapore''s public policies in the areas of healthcare, Central Provident Fund, and monetary policy are explored, as well as issues concerning Singapore''s economic development, such as economic transformation, innovation and capital accumulation are discussed. The second section, OC Singapore and the Region in a Globalized WorldOCO, looks at the challenges and opportunities presented to Singapore and the region in an increasingly globalized world. Current issues on the sub-prime crisis and Asian monetary integration are also discussed. The last section, OC Other Economic IssuesOCO, consists of papers in specific areas such as economics of medical decisions, economics of love, and the role of exchange rates in foreign direct investment.

Research on Singapore's economic history has been complicated by the absence of economic data on pre-independence Singapore. This book aims to fill the gap by presenting a time-series of historical GDP estimates for the periods 1900-39 and 1950-60. The new data presented in the book sheds light on two key aspects of Singapore's economic history, namely the relationship between economic instability and growth, as well as the government's fiscal policy towards economic growth. As the first comprehensive empirical economic history of twentieth-century Singapore, this book is a valuable reference source for academics and graduate students interested in development and empirical economics.

Written by Emeritus Professor LIM Chong-Yah, Founding Chairman of the tripartite National Wages Council (NWC), this unique volume offers readers an insider's view of the genesis and the evolution of the wage determination mechanism and system in Singapore under the aegis of the NWC. As a tripartite body dealing with wages, wage policies and wage-related matters and promoting Growth with Equity, the NWC played a critical role in transforming industrial relations in Singapore from the then confrontational approach to that of mutual understanding, esprit de corps and social co-partnership. Drawing from his 30-year experience as NWC Chairman (1972-2001), Singapore's eminent Economics Professor shares with readers the important process and problems of seeking equitable wage increases through tripartite consensus based on a yearly national wage guideline system. The book also chronicles the role of the NWC in crisis management in 1974, 1985 and 1998, and in Economic Restructuring, 1979-1981. The structure and operation of this unique Singapore institution and the interesting problems of securing unanimity of support from the three tripartite partners are revealed in the book. Some important NWC personalities and their concerns and unique contributions are interestingly covered, anecdotally.