The Asian Economic Crisis, the Southeast Asian Countries and ASEAN

Abstract

The general literature on East and Southeast Asian regionalism binds the success of regionalism to the rapid economic growth of the region. The same holds true for ASEAN. Both the academic literature and ASEAN’s official speeches make the connection between regionalism and economic success. This connection makes sense. Four out of five of the original ASEAN countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand — enjoyed rapid and continuous economic growth (over five percent per year for over 20 years) — quite a distinctive accomplishment compared to other developing countries. Only the Philippines, burdened by violent and unstable domestic political development, lacked this growth. Without doubt, the economic success of the majority of the ASEAN countries remarkably strengthened the emergence of the concept of new regionalism. This concept, in turn, connects to the so-called East Asian (economic) miracle studies.