Developing Asia has been the star performer in the world economy for the past
few decades. In the 1960s, newly industrialized economies (NIEs) like Hong
Kong, China; the Republic of Korea; Singapore; and Taipei,China began the
remarkable transformation from a struggling group of developing economies
into the most dynamic component of the global economy. The NIEs followed
the Japanese blueprint of export-oriented industrialization and were in turn
followed by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The region’s two giants—the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and India—were the next to emerge, powered by
market-oriented economic reforms and the opening up of their economies to
foreign trade and investment. Still others such as Viet Nam are now following
in their footsteps. Sustained, rapid growth has moved developing Asia from the
sidelines of the global economy to the forefront as it has outperformed not only
the maturing, advanced economies but also other parts of the developing world
and continues to do so. An important by-product of this stellar performance has
been an unprecedented reduction in poverty.