ABSTRACT
With the exception of Singapore the ASEAN economies are endowed with a wide range of natural resources, both renewable and non-renewable. Together the ASEAN countries annually export the bulk of the world’s rubber, palm oil and coconut products, in addition to a significant amount of other commodities of mineral and agricultural origin, including petroleum and natural gas, and rice (Figure 1.2). The continuing export of these geographically-specific commodities in the past provided the ASEAN economies’ main source of capital formation for their economic growth, particularly in the 1970s when the ASEAN economies were riding on the back of the raw materials boom. But their economic growth plummeted in the early part of the 1980s due to the general slump of the world commodity markets. Aggravated by gross economic mismanagement, the Philippine economy had even plunged into negative growth.
