East Asia's Economic Prospects

The purpose of the East Asia research program conducted by the World Bank's Development Research Group is to identify and analyze some of the principal drivers of current and future growth in the major economies of the region including the emergence of industrial clusters. The earlier phase of the program concentrated on regional integration, international production networking, the significance of investment in IT, and enterprise reform.

In the current phase, more attention is being devoted to three topics:

• Industrial restructuring and to the strategies adopted by firms to achieve and sustain a competitive edge in the global market; 
• To the building of innovation systems in East Asian economies with a specific focus on the role of universities in supplying skills, contributing to scientific knowledge, and in helping to assist with the assimilation of exiting technologies as well as the creation of new ones; 
• And on the changing industrial geography of East and South Asia as industries migrate from early starters to late starters which have been quick to acquire industrial capabilities and increasingly, technological capabilities.