Already in the 1960s the four little dragons Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan started their industrialization moving steadily upwards with increasing growth rates, some of them double-digit in the 1980s. Most significant for these results has been their export-oriented growth strategy capitalizing on low labour costs and opening them up to the world market with all its benefits and pressures. Until today they have attracted quite a lot of foreign investors bringing technology and skills beside the pure capital. Thus, all four countries have reached a more sophisticated level of production and partly even developed into service and financial centres.Combining these developments with the already advanced Japan, the entire Asia-Pacific Region must be seen as an extremely dynamic area often also mentioned as the Pacific Challenge. Thus it is of high interest to examine the determinants of growth behind this challenge, behind the economic success.Because of the specific Asian dimension of the success, especially the Asian mentality, a transfer of the growth strategy can only be possible to a very limited degree. But the Asian experiences can at least be helpful to the formulation of a country related development strategy showing up generally important growth factors.The contributors to this book analyze important factors such as development planning, foreign investment, deregulation, government intervention, human capital, finance and banking (service sector), technology transfer and promotion, trade (export promotion), agriculture and regional cooperation. For this purpose experts in Science and Economics report from their experiences.

The need for continued analysis and evaluation of the international financial system is as pressing now as it was when this book was originally published. This volume provides an in-depth analysis of certain aspects of the international financial system. Specifically it addresses four of the most important financial and monetary issues of the present time: exchange rate, capital markets, international banking and external debt and international financial management.

The main finding of the study is the domestic financial market plays a very significant role in the success or failure of trade liberalization. This was found to be the case in Sri Lanka during 1977-87.

The book represents an attempt to test the applicability of this hypothesis, through a comparative study of the fiscal policy and decision-making process of six countries that, taken together, represent a broad range of political and bureaucratic systems.

The need for continued analysis and evaluation of the international financial system is as pressing now as it was when this book was originally published. This volume provides an in-depth analysis of certain aspects of the international financial system. Specifically it addresses four of the most important financial and monetary issues of the present time: exchange rate, capital markets, international banking and external debt and international financial management.