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亚太地区在经济增长方面是一个快速发展的地区。过去二十年来，在经济、科技和人力资本方面，该地区的经济增长是一致的。亚太经合组织的形成与欧洲跨国企业在该地区越来越感兴趣，推动了该地区的发展。其发展的基础是其多元化的成员和他们之间的松散的区域一体化，使贸易和投资的持续高增长。虽然，这已经开始爆发一些地区的紧张局势，因为不同的发展阶段的不同成员造成的不平衡和贸易争端。
INTRODUCTION 简介
Asia Pacific is a fast developing region in terms of economic growth. The past two decades have witnessed a consistent growth in the region in terms of economy, technology and human capital. The formation of APEC and the increasing interest of European MNCs in the region have boosted the development of the region. The basis of its progress was its diversified members and the loose regional integration among them which allowed a continued high growth in trade and investment. Although, this has started to erupt some tensions in the region because of the different levels of development stages of the different members causing imbalances and trade disputes.
ASIA-PACIFIC AND ITS SUB-REGIONS:亚太及其分区
在过去的二十年中，该地区在新的全球经济秩序中承担了重要的地位。在区域内和区域间的贸易和投资以及劳动力市场的重要影响，在劳动力市场上的迁移，在该地区发生了显着的变化。
During the last two decades, the region has assumed a significant position in the new global economic order. Significant changes have taken place in the region both in intra-regional and inter-regional trade and investments along with important ramifications in the labour market in terms of migration.
The region is also characterized by great diversity. The nations can be categorized based on three commonly used criteria:
Level of economic growth;
Rate of economic growth;
Trade and payment positions.
Based on the above mentioned criteria, five groups of nations can be formed. These are:
The industrial giants such as USA and Japan;
The land-rich nations such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand;
The rapidly growing newly industrialized economies (NIEs) such as Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan;
The newly-industrialized nations such as China, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia;
The traditional developing nations such as Burma/Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
The trade, investment and growth prospects of different groups differ considerably. It is because of the fact that different groups have faced different economic problems during the last twenty years.
Group 1:
The USA and Japan are the dominant economies and their economic performance plays a vital role factor in determining the overall progress of the region. Both these nations have almost exhausted the usual sources of economic growth and at this point in time, the major determinants of their economic performance are two-fold. First, a sound short-term macro-economic management and Secondly, a long term set of policies to reduce structural rigidity and improve factor productivity.
For the USA, such macro-economic management entails:
Change in the domestic savings-investment balance by boosting domestic savings.
Reduced fiscal deficit-a fiscal deficit is the (negative) gap between government revenue and expenditure.
Reduction in the demand for increased protectionism.
For Japan the key problems are to reduce structural rigidity in home goods industries and to rationalize the domestic capital market.
Group 2:
The industrial sector of Canada, Australia and New Zealand is smaller than that of Japan and USA. The economic resources of these nations come from the trade of their primary products in the international market. Thus, the growth of international economy have significant effects on their economic performance.
Group 3:
In the 1960s, these nations were labelled as the backward economies of the Asia-Pacific region but for nearly three decades now, they have maintained a growth rate in excess of growth in any other nation. It is this group of nations whose development path has been quite unique in recent history.
By 1990, the per capita income of these nations was higher than the average of the world's middle-income countries. As a result, they are often labelled as the 'newly industrialized economies'. The export growth in all the four nations -Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong- exceeded the growth of national income.
Group 4:
This group has achieved the status of 'almost NIEs' because of the fact that they have tried and imitate the economic policy and development strategies of NIEs and managed to achieve and sustain above-average growth rates for almost three decades.
Group 5:
This group of nations depends heavily on the agriculture since their industrial sector is still immature. They have not been able to achieve above average growth rates as yet.
FACTORS EFFECTING THE ECONOMIC GROWTH OF ASIA-PACIFIC 影响亚太地区经济增长的因素
Regional integration
Definition
"Regional integration is a process in which states enter into a regional agreement in order to enhance regional cooperation through regional institutions and rules. The objectives of the agreement could range from economic to political, although it has generally become a political economy initiative where commercial purposes are the means to achieve broader socio-political and security objectives. It could be organized either on a supranational or an intergovernmental decision-making institutional order, or a combination of both."
Regional Integration in the Asia-Pacific
Regional Integration can take many forms. It ranges from the removal of tariffs and non-tariff barriers to the harmonization of domestic regulations and policies, and can even lead to formation of a mono-currency region, e.g. the EU. The movement for economic cooperation and integration started during the mid-60s. Annual gatherings of businessmen, known as the Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC), started in 1967 and a gathering of economists, the Pacific Trade and Development conference (PAFTAD), began in 1968.
In 1989 a much looser form of integration has been going on known as the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum. Such loose integration has allowed a regular free exchange of views and extensive research in order to form a consensus on various issues of economic cooperation throughout the region. There are two aspects of this loose and diverse integration:
Positive Aspect
The different level of economic development and resources endowment has stimulated active trade and investment and allowed many developing members to achieve high growth rates. The export of resource and technological products and high value-added services allows the developed countries to maintain their growth as well as to invest in the developing activities of the developing countries. Intra-APEC trade increased from 56 per cent in 1980 to 66 per cent in 1990, which compares with an increase from 53 per cent to 63 per cent within the EC12. The main motivation for promoting APEC is to sustain high growth in the region which is shared by all members.
Negative Aspect
This diversity has made it complicated to start with any formal structures which have affected the market driven integration by persistent imbalances and frequent trade disputes between the members. Bottlenecks caused by poor infrastructures in the member states with a developing economy impede further realization of their high growth potential.
Characteristics of APEC
The following three key terms describes APEC's major characteristics:
Diversity among its members
High growth potential
Informal structure.
These three terms are interrelated and are reflected in the Osaka Action Agenda. The effect of Osaka Action Agenda on the liberalization & facilitation process and that of Foreign Direct Investment on the economic growth is explained in the sections below.
3.1 Osaka Action Agenda and its implementation
The Osaka Action Agenda consists of two parts. Part One covers trade liberalization and facilitation (the reduction of the costs of doing business) and Part Two covers economic and technical co-operation (APEC, 1995b).
3.1.1 Trade liberalization and facilitation
"The action agenda for trade liberalization and facilitation starts with nine general principles; comprehensiveness, WTO-consistency, comparability, non-discrimination, transparency, standstill, simultaneous start/continuous process/differentiated timetables, flexibility, and co-operation."#p#分页标题#e#
"It has an extensive coverage of fifteen areas: tariffs, non-tariff measures, services, investment, standard and conformance, customs procedures, intellectual property rights, competition policy, government procurement, deregulation, rules of origin, dispute mediation, mobility of business people, implementation of the Uruguay Round outcomes, information gathering and analysis."
Its new and particular modality-the way to implement liberalization and facilitation programmes-is the 'concerted unilateral liberalization'. This means that individual members announce their own liberalization and facilitation programmes and implement them in alliance with their domestic rules, but at the same time closely monitoring each other's plans and their implementations. APEC members then face two types of pressures, one to oblige to submit a liberalization programme as extensive as those of their neighbour and second to stay committed with their own plans so as not to lose face. This is the essence of concerted unilateral liberalization.
APEC members have so far done a good job in implementing an open economic policy and trade and investment liberalization unilaterally which has formed a strong basis for their high growth. The APEC leaders recognize this as the key to continued growth, without losing momentum for the liberalization process and have been reflected in the Bogor Declaration
3.1.2 Economic and technical co-operation
"Part Two of the Osaka Action Agenda covers thirteen areas of economic and technical co-operation: human resource development, industrial science and technology, small and medium sized enterprises, economic infrastructure, energy, transportation, telecommunication and information, tourism, trade and investment data, trade promotion, marine resource conservation, fisheries, and agricultural technology."
A new modality was set to fill the gaps in the above mentioned areas, resulting from the distinct APEC members. The members with abundant resources contributed for to the developing countries on a voluntary basis. Apart from that, consistency with market mechanism and contribution of private sector is also encouraged. Economic co-operation has so far attracted less attention but it will provide a variety of business opportunities in the region.
3.1.3 Liberalization and facilitation in progress
In 1996, the APEC leaders adopted the Manila Action Plans in which individual members announced their Individual Action Plans (IAPs) of liberalization and implementation from 1997 onwards. To look at the APEC's commitments towards the liberalization process, the best test is to look at the tariff reduction proposals. Generally speaking, while developed members committed themselves to a tariff reduction of 'UR plus a small alpha' (Uruguay Round plus a small difference) but still short of achieving the Bogor target (a zero tariff by 2010), some developing members committed to a 'UR plus a large alpha' (Uruguay Round plus a larger difference) and sufficient for achieving their Bogor target (a zero tariff by 2020). This can be illustrated in the schematic diagram below.
The dotted lines show linear tariff reduction over 15 and 25 years, while the solid lines show 'actual reduction (up to 1995) plus IAP commitment (from 1996 to 2000)'.
Figure: Tariff reduction toward the Bogor target
In short, APEC's unilateral liberalization process has made a good start. It could induce tariff reduction of 'UR plus' from most members and help to maintain the current momentum for liberalization in NTMs, services, and investment.
However, the APEC members needs to be encouraged to keep the momentum going so that all the members can reach their established goals because the IAPs of most members only assures progress over the next few years.
With its basic philosophy of consensus and voluntarism the APEC process cannot be fast track.
3.1.4 Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Economic Growth
"Foreign direct investment is that investment, which is made to serve the business interests of the investor in a company, which is in a different nation distinct from the investor's country of origin."
(Wikipedia 2011)
"Foreign direct investment is a large and growing source of finance that may help
developing countries close the technology gap with high-income countries, upgrade
managerial skills, and develop their export markets."
(World Bank (1993, p. 3))
Multinational corporations (MNCs) are a major source of advanced technologies for developing countries. They possess more advanced knowledge which allows them to introduce new capital goods at a lower cost. But it is necessary for the host countries to have sufficient human capital for the application of these advanced technologies. The stock of human capital in the host country, therefore, limits the absorptive capability of a developing country, as in Nelson and Phelps (1966), and Benhabib and Spiegel (1994).
There is a strong complementary effect between FDI and human capital, that is, the contribution of FDI to economic growth is enhanced by its interaction with the level of human capital in the host country. FDI is more productive than domestic investment only when the host country has a minimum threshold stock of human capital.
CONCLUSION 结论
To sum it all up, the business and economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region has been going on for the past forty years. The diversity in the region and the different growth levels of different nations allows a loose and smoother regional integration among the countries of the region. This has lead to the formation of APEC which has allowed for a liberalization and facilitation process with a convenient economic and technical cooperation both from the nations of the region as well as the FDI brought by the MNCs. Both the Bogor Declaration and the Osaka Action Agenda have shown the future direction of changes in Asia-Pacific economic order.
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