Introduction

Abstract

McDonald’s in Manila, karaoke in Kalimantan, cricket in Kuala Lumpur, fashion stores in Singapore. The list could easily be extended. The foreign element is conspicuously present in today’s quest for rapid economic growth and modernization in Southeast Asia. A comparison with the colonial past, only a couple of generations ago, is illuminating. Then, as now, foreign direct investment (FDI) poured into the region exerting a profound influence, for better or worse, on the prospects for subsequent economic development. Much has been written about foreign investment under the aegis of colonial rule and there is already a vast literature on contemporary foreign investment in Southeast Asia. Yet few have fully appreciated the long-run continuity in the key part played by foreign investment capital in this region. This is where this book fits in. It links past and present in the foreign investment experience of Southeast Asia during the twentieth century. It argues, among other things, that FDI was as important in the late colonial period as it is today.