Countertrade in the Asian-Pacific Region

The article surveys the literature on countertrade with special reference to the Asian-Pacific region. It covers the five most common forms of 'tied' trade: barter, counterpurchase, buyback, offset and bilateral agreements. It focuses on China as the most important centrally planned economy in the region; on the two regional market economies which have made use of countertrade, Indonesia and Malaysia; and on Singapore as a countertrade service centre. The literature survey consists not so much of the relatively few academic books and articles on the subject but of a miscellany of articles to assist practitioners and to study appropriate responses at the firm, national and global level.     

Energy in the Asian-Pacific Region

The Asian-Pacific region is undergoing massive development. Most of the nations in the area have growing populations and growing economies. Many nations in the region are changing from a low-energy, village-based agrarian lifestyle to one of high-energy usage which is manufacturing and urban-based. This paper discusses the impact of demographic and social change on the energy supply and demand patterns in the region, on global energy resources and on the trade in those resources.     

Tourism in the Asian-Pacific Region

Tourism has been growing rapidly in the Asian-Pacific region, outward tourism propelled by rising incomes and inward tourism by falling airfares. This article draws on recent literature to describe the development of the tourist industry in the region and government policies concerning tourism. It discusses some of the industry's problems, such as environmental effects, shortage of appropriate skills and changes in competitiveness, especially for Japan and Singapore.     

Competition Policy in the Asian-Pacific Region

This paper surveys competition policy in the APEC countries. It covers competition-promoting policies such as free trade but focuses on competition law. Fourteen of the 21 APEC countries have comprehensive national competition laws but in some the coverage is limited and the enforcement is weak. After reviewing national, bilateral and regional competition laws, the paper discusses the problems of devising competition law in developing countries with a weak tradition of promoting competition.     

The Information Revolution in the Asian-Pacific Region

In this paper, an attempt is made to survey literature dealing with these developments in the Asian-Pacific region. Section I explores the information sector. Section II focuses on telecommunications, the leading edge of the information infrastructure. Section III reviews writing about 'IT-led development', the view of information technology as a powerful tool for the promotion of socioeconomic development. Section IV looks at the role of the World Bank, the largest single hard-currency source of finance for telecommunications in developing countries. Section V reports on some aspects of IT trade and internationalisation. Section VI provides summary country case studies. Section VII raises some questions about the link between telecommunications and economic development.     

Exchange Rate Regimes in the Asian-Pacific Region

This survey is designed to complemenl Treadgold's on Macroeconomic Manugement (APEL March 1990) by reviewing the literature on exchange rate regimes with reference to the Asian-Pacific region. After a brief typology of exchange rate regimes, the article discusses the choice between currency system, the relationship between choice of regime and policy objectives, constraints on choice of regimes, the distinction between 'traded' and 'non-traded' goods, the 'booming' export sector case and finally the relevance of regulatory distortions and the related question of transition from one regime to amiher.     

Trade Policy Issues in the Asian-Pacific Region:

Throughout the 1980s the Asian-Pacific region (and especially fast Asian countries) has achieved rapid economic growth accompanied by drastic changes in industrial production and trade. In the textile and clothing industry (‘textile’ industry hereafter), exporting countries display the ‘flying geese’ pattern. The first-tier exportec Japan, had retreated by the mid- 1970s. The second-tier exporters, the East Asian newly industrializing economies (NIEs, consisting of South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong), are now being replaced by the third-tier, ASEAN and Chinese exporters. The drastic changes in production and trade have resulted from the spread of modern textile production techniques in response to changing comparative advantage. This has been caused by increased labour costs and exchange rate alignment in the first-and second-tier exporters, but it has also been affected by the trade policies of industrial importer countries. The textile industry trade has been tightly managed under the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA), and individual trade flows have been restricted by quota allocation under the MFA. At the current GATT Uruguay Round negotiations the major contracting parties agreed, in the Dunkel text of December 7997, on the gradual phasing out of the MFA restrictions over ten years. How will textile industry trade develop in the absence of the MFA restrictions? This paper focuses on the trade and production of textiles and clothing, but the case of this industry exemplifies important trade policy issues arising from the rapidly changing industrial structure in the Asian-Pacific region. In discussing textile trade policy issues, economists often focus on the MFA. However, the MFA has not produced a watertight regime. Textile production and trade have changed through product and process innovation, new management styles, and the ever-changing tastes of consumers. The MFA restrictions have effected these innovative changes, but the policy issues need to be discussed in this context of industrial change. ¹ 1 The author has published two papers on this issue (Yamazawa 1983, 1989). This paper is a follow-up of earlier discussion. As in past studies, the author has benefited from discussion at the Textile Advisory Committee meetings of Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and from a field trip to northern China in early 1903.
     

The Role of Stock Markets in the Asian-Pacific Region

This paper identifies the role of stock markets in developing economies with a focus on the Asian-Pacific region. The region's markets generally do not play a major role in resource allocation. The stock exchanges of the region are primarily secondary markets facilitating portfolio construction by domestic and international investors. The paper concentrates on secondary market activity and the controls regulators use to contain excessive speculation and price volatility. It also covers the role of stock markets in the recent financial crisis in the region.     

Military Expenditure and the Arms Trade in the Asian-Pacific Region

The trend towards further reductions in world military expenditure does not seem to be shared by most Asian-Pacific countries. Military expenditure in the region continues to expand, but the military burden (the proportion of military expenditure in GDP) and the military share (the share of military expenditure in central government expenditure) are declining in most Asian-Pacific countries. This is largely due to sustained high economic growth in the region. Thus far, the military burden has not had an adverse effect on the region's economic growth, but continued expansion of military expenditure is not sustainable in countries where the military share is high. Asian-Pacific countries are vigorously developing, modernizing and upgrading their indigenous arms production capabilities. This effort has been aided not only by the availability of financial resources but also by the changing nature of the international arms market that offers attractive package deals, including various licensing, co-production and offset manufacturing arrangements.     

Small-Scale Industry and Cleaner Production Strategies

Economically favorable cleaner production measures could be particularly attractive for small-scale industry in developing countries. Research in Kenya indicated that cleaner production measures could generate promising results in reducing pollution levels at low costs. The small-scale industries are, however, constrained in implementing cleaner production by various attitudinal, organizational, technical and economic barriers. To introduce cleaner production methods successfully, the small-scale sector needs support, such as technical and financial incentives, from policy organizations and nongovernmental organizations. This requires better coordination of policy efforts and organization of small-scale enterprises, in particular because environmental improvements could be induced within enhanced industrial interactions.     

货币错配与经济金融稳定:来自亚太地区的经验

中国的汇率制度改革使得在钉住汇率制度下积聚的巨大货币错配风险逐渐暴露出来。货币错配是否会影响经济金融稳定,通过对亚洲金融危机、日本经济衰退以及本世纪以来亚洲新兴市场国家累积的新风险进行梳理、比较与分析,认为净外币负债型货币错配与净外币资产型货币错配在一定条件下都会影响经济金融稳定。     

Intellectual Property Rights in the Asian-Pacific Region: problems, patterns, and policy

This paper explores recent theory and evidence regarding increased protection of intellectual property rights (ZPRs) in Asia. Knowledge has significant public good aspects making optimal provision a problem of trading off universal access against adequate incentives for R&D. Given the ease of evasion of IPR relative to tariffs, attempts to push low and middleincome countries to higher levels of protection may be against their national interests. The Uruguay Round may encounter less than enthusiastic enforcement. Further efforts to refine IPR protection might usefully be focused on flexibility instead of harmonisation.     

A Comparison of Clustered and Dispersed Firms in the Small-Scale Clothing Industry of Lima

This study provides empirical evidence on the strength and type of clustering advantages, contrasting the performance of small clustered firms with several control groups of dispersed producers in the garment industry of Lima, Peru. Repeated measurement facilitates an evaluation of the ability of clustered firms to respond to pressures arising from the swift trade liberalization carried out in Peru after 1990. The evidence suggests that clustering advantages have been significant, particularly for the smallest firms. Cost reductions and information spillovers are the dominant type of advantages. These are however, passive advantages of clustering. They largely arise at the level of transactions in goods and services, and to a lesser extent in the transformation of inputs into output. While significant, these advantages are insufficient for sustaining competitiveness in the liberalized markets. The garment cluster runs the risk of entropic death if information spillovers remain limited in origin and diversity and if interfirm cooperation does not cross local borders.     

Urbanization issues in the Asian-Pacific region

Various aspects of urbanization – including the rapid growth of urban, especially metropolitan populations, increasing levels of urban primacy, rural-urban migration and the infrastructure needs generated by these trends – have exercised the minds of Asian-Pacific planners for decades. The policy responses have varied, but, apart from a lack of unanimity on appropriate policy goals, there has been a general failure to recognize that broad macro-economic or sectoral policies may have greater spatial impact than measures, often rather feeble, adopted for their direct spatial effects.
The paper reviews urbanization trends in the Asian-Pacific region, and discusses the causes of urbanization. It then briefly reviews the public policy responses recommended in the literature or actually practised in the region. A series of issues in urban policy and planning are then discussed.     

Macroeconomic Management in Asian-Pacific Developing Countries

This article surveys the literature on macro-economic policy in East Asian and Pacific developing countries. Both internal and external aspects of macroeconomic policy are covered, but greater emphasis is placed on the former. After reviewing regional work on macroeconomic policy objectives and on the conflicts, constraints and trade-offs faced by policy makers, an examination is made of research into target/instrument frameworks for the analsyis and design of policy. Then follow sections dealing with the specific instruments of monetary and fiscal policy. Finally, attention is drawn briefly to topics found in the literature but bypassed in this survey, and to gaps in the regional literature itself.