"AFTER THE CRISIS - LESSONS FROM THE EAST ASIAN EXPERIENCE"
Speaker: Dr. Sarath Rajapatirana
Visiting Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
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East Asian countries have had a stellar economic performance since the mid
sixties by any measure of economic advancement. Many developing country
policy makers as well as the international financial institutions have
claimed that their approach to policies, institutions and economic
administration should be emulated by others who also want to succeed. In the
mid 1990s, however, this performance waned and a crisis occurred during
1997-98. The crisis that began in Thailand spread to Indonesia and Malaysia
and to the Four tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan). While
Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore experienced much reduced GDP growth compared
to their past, these countries did not face a crisis. South Korea,
Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand on the other hand, underwent tremendous
economic crisis
Consequently, some doubts have begun to emerge whether the East Asian
countries' approach to economic policy making was viable in the long run.
Many developing countries are interested in the elements of the policies,
institutions and economic administration of the East Asian countries that
led to their success and are keen to avoid those elements that had led to
failure in those countries.
The lecture will review the performance of the East Asian countries with a
view to interpreting the performance of those countries, highlighting the
elements of their success and failure and attempt to derive lessons for
other developing countries.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Sarath Rajapatirana has been a visiting scholar at the American
Enterprise Institute since 1998. At present he working on a book on
Developing Country Trade Policies and leading a Mission to Vietnam to
evaluate its export policies.
Previously he was with the World Bank where he served as Advisor to the
Managing Directors for Operations Policy, and Policy Advisor in the Senior
Staff Resources Program. While with the Bank he has also served as: leader
of the Team that evaluated the Integrated Framework for Development of Trade
in Least Developed Countries -A program of technical assistance for trade
provided by the World Bank, the IMF, ITC UNCTAD, UNDP and WTO. Dr.
Rajapatirana was also Division Chief for Trade, Industry and Finance for
Latin America and the Caribbean, Director of the Macroeconomic Performance
Comparative Study Project, Director and Team leader of the World Development
Report for 1987 on Industry and Trade and Member of the Editorial Board of
the World Bank Economic Review.
Before joining the World Bank he was head of Money and Banking Research at
the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. He has published many articles in refereed
journals on trade, macroeconomics and finance.