ABSTRACT
The speed of economic growth in East Asia has conjured up a range of resonant descriptions, from national ‘Tigers’ to regional ‘Miracle’ and imminent ‘Pacific Century’. The leading Far Eastern nations do stand as object lessons in development economics, but entrenched and widespread industrialisation from a position of recent, comparative disadvantage is understandable in terms that give full credit to the hard-won fruits of human and capital accumulation. The causes of rapid development can be enumerated, and they might include cultural attributes, government policy, and competitive markets, in addition to high savings ratios and committed investment in education, production facilities and technology. The achievement of economic development and transformation in the Far Eastern economies is open to varieties of alternative analysis, and they all have the same ability to match the available facts.
