ABSTRACT
As we begin the new millennium, there can be no doubt that Asia will be one of the most economically vibrant areas in the world. Indeed, this has been a continuous development for the past four decades. Since the resurrection of Japan in the 1960s and 1970s, Asia (especially East Asia) has shown an uncanny ability for almost unbridled growth and development. In the 1980s, the Four Small Tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea) took off and created a new terminology, newly industrialized countries (NICs), while the spectacular growth of China has made her the second largest economy in the world (the Four Small Tigers were reclassified as “advanced economies” in 1997 by the International Monetary Fund). In between, we also see the emergence of successors to the Four Small Tigers: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
