Wirtschaftliche Integration im asiatisch-pazifischen RaumWolfram Wallraf

ASIEN – Nr. 59 (1996) pp. 7–33

The Asia-Pacific region has been and will continue to be the most dynamic part of the world economy at least till the first decade of the 21st century. This growth cannot be explained without a balanced and critical consideration of the relevance of domestic growth-related political, social and cultural potentials and the impact of the evolving system of international division of labor within the region, referred to as „flying geese pattern“ or „industrial transformation chain“. The rapid export-oriented industrialization in East Asia caused a growing density of economic interaction and a trend towards regionalization form of networks, subregional transnational „growth triangles“ and special economic zones, thus creating „intermediate structures of integration“. On the intergouvernmental level we can identify and compare the more conservative institutionalistic undertaking of ASEAN/AFTA and the rather innovative „open economic association“ of APEC with its strategy of concerted unilateral trade liberalization, its philosophy of macroeconomic harmonization through communicated market driven creation of common norms and standards, and its development programs and cooperation schemes using flexible forms of participation and responsibility.