Introduction

Abstract

East Asian economies once attracted particular attention from the world. They in fact fuelled the greatest expansion of wealth in the history of modern capitalism. The annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth of South Korea (hereafter Korea), Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) five founder members (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines) maintained the highest level in the world over the three decades until the mid-1990s. In the same period real per capita income increased tenfold in Korea, fivefold in Thailand, and fourfold in Malaysia, while per capita income in Singapore and Hong Kong today exceeds those in some industrial countries.