Introduction

Beginning in the 1980s, rapid economic development in Asia has given rise to what has come to be known as the ‘East Asian Miracle’. Furthermore, this ‘miracle’ was driven by a top-down state-led approach – known as the ‘Asian developmental state model’ – to economic development among Asian economic powerhouses such as China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Focusing on Singapore and Hong Kong, this book assesses and evaluates the evolution of the developmental state model amid an increasingly digitized and innovation-centric economy. This chapter provides a broad overview of the content, methodologies and rationale of this book.