Sustaining Rapid Development in East Asia and the Pacific

Over the past quarter century, per capita incomes in East Asia have nearly quadrupled, and there has been a sharp reduction in poverty and notable social progress. Indeed, with absolute poverty now down to about 11 percent of the population, East Asia could overcome poverty and close the social gap with the industrial countries within a generation or so - if it can meet the emerging challenges of the 1990s and sustain its rapid, broadly based economic growth and social development. But several as yet unsolved problems - such as infrastructural development, enterprise reform, and financial sector reform - will have to be addressed with new urgency. And new concerns - the rising environmental threat and changing international trade arrangements - will test the region's innovative capacities. These themes are the subject of this book, the first in the Development in Practice series on the World Bank's activities in specific regions and sectors. The series emphasizes the policies and practices that hold the most promise for reducing poverty in the developing world. In addition to numerous tables and figures in the text, the booklet contains a comprehensive country-by-country statistical appendix.