ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the extent to which economic and financial aspects of regional governance in Asia have become manifest mainly in transnational organisations and institutions and through ‘functional cooperation’ in national state policy, especially in regional trade, dispute resolution, monetary cooperation and economic policy. The extent of financial integration among East Asia’s newly industrialised and developing states matches neither the rhetoric expended in its support since the region’s financial crisis of 1997-98, nor the degree of economic integration among the same states and with their highly industrialised neighbours, Australia, Japan and New Zealand. ASEAN’s first substantive venture in financial cooperation was made in early 1997, and the resulting understanding is a general framework for cooperation in banking, capital markets, customs, insurance, taxation, and human resource development, in each case through mechanisms provided by existing institutions. The 1997 Asian crisis has had a significant and enduring impact on national economies and on the stance of policy makers.
