Latest Edition: Southeast Asia: The Long Road Ahead (3rd Edition)
Southeast Asia is going through tremendous changes. The market-oriented economies of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand have been showing robust growth, particularly before the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98. The transitional economies of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are also exhibiting signs of economic awakening and revival after years of internal political and social turmoil. Despite these encouraging signs, the region still has a long road ahead to achieve developed nation status.
Southeast Asia: The Long Road Ahead is a serious and concise study on various important economic aspects of Southeast Asia. Existing economic studies on the region are mainly topical in nature. Most of the publications only attempt to offer a partial treatment of the issues and fail to examine these issues in a holistic manner. The objective of this book is to provide a more complete cross-country discussion on the economic issues and problems facing Southeast Asia. Besides critically examining the multiple facets of changes and problems that have been and will be encountered by Southeast Asia, the book also presents a lucid exposition on the prospects of the region. However, it does not stop there. It moves on to provide pointers and suggestions on how Southeast Asian countries should proceed with their development options and processes. The book should be of interest to economists, graduate students on Southeast Asia and all those who want to have a better knowledge and understanding of the important Southeast Asian region.
Sample Chapter(s)
Chapter 1: The Land and Its History (186 KB)
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Contents:
- The Land and Its History
- Economic Diversity
- Agriculture: Rice
- Agriculture: Rubber, Oil Palm and Other Crops
- Agriculture: Prospects and Policy Options
- Industrialisation: Comparative Strategy
- Economic Inter-Dependence: External Trade
- Economic Regionalism
- Fiscal Policy
- Financial Policy
- Population Explosion and Characteristics
- The Asian Financial Crisis
- Trinity Development Model and Southeast Asian Development
Readership: Economists and graduate students in economics.
“Professor Lim has drawn on his vast experience as teacher and high-level policy adviser in Singapore to offer us an extremely lively and informative volume. He comprehensively surveys the historical record and future prospects of a group of countries whose remarkable growth record offers many lessons for the theory and practice of development economics. Equally, he offers valuable insights into the reasons why this group has recently faltered, but also why there are solid signs of recovery for some of them. An added bonus are Professor Lim's engaging style of writing and his helpful ‘discussion guides’ to each chapter. This is going to be a great book for me in my new MSc course on ‘China and the Pacific Rim’.”
Professor Roger Sandilands
Professor of Economics
University of Strathclyde Glasgow, United Kingdom
“Students, scholars, and policymakers involved with Southeast Asia's economic development owe a large debt of gratitude to Professor Lim Chong Yah for sharing his life-long scholarship and many insights on economic and public policies in this comprehensive and accessible textbook. It is arguably the best introduction available in the market today concerning Southeast Asia economies and directions they may consider in addressing the challenges of the 21st century.”
Professor Mukul Asher
Professor of Economics
Public Policy Programme, National University of Singapore
“This certainly is a remarkable book on a region of considerable strategic importance. What makes this volume so remarkable is the width of coverage and depth of insights that can only come with years of relentless pursuit in the name of empirical enquiry.”
Professor Mohamed Ariff
Executive Director
Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (Mier)
“From his base in Singapore, Lim Chong Yah has been a leading international figure in the economics profession of Southeast Asia for several decades. This book shows why … Professor Lim writes on a broad canvas, but with great attention to detail and much insight. He combines clarity of expression with an authoritative style and deep country knowledge. Scholars, students, government officials and business people — indeed, anybody with an interest in this fascinating part of the world — will want to have this book on their shelves. It will certainly be required reading for my class.”
Professor Hal Hill
H W Arndt Professor of Southeast Asian Economies
Australian National University
“Professor Lim has written a superb volume, one that is a ‘capstone’ to his extraordinary career as a scholar and public person. My students at the University of Hawaii enjoyed the first edition of the book immensely. They found it to be readable, content-laden and extremely useful particularly because they were fairly new readers of scholarship on Southeast Asia. However, Professor Lim's volume clearly is aimed at a broad readership including advanced scholars from economics and related disciplines. His choice of topics and the manner by which he treats them elevates his book to the 'must read' list of scholars and policy makers whose intellectual interests include Southeast Asia's future.”
Professor Robert L Curry, Jr
Emeritus Professor of Economics
California State University Sacramento
Visiting Lecturer
University of Hawaii at Manoa
“This is the best and ideal textbook on Southeast Asian (or ASEAN) Economies. To learn or teach about ASEAN economies is very important to the understanding of East Asia, which is an essential pillar in the trilateral leading groups of nations in the world, along with EU and NAFTA. ASEAN is crucial to the East Asian grouping. This is an up-to-date book, covering current and topical economic issues like regionalism as well as the 1997/98 financial crisis. All ten countries of ASEAN are covered, from the basic fundamentals of each country to the complicated problems of international competition and complementarity in East Asia including Japan and China. The book is recommendable to students, businessmen and intellectuals living or working in Southeast Asia.”
Professor Shinichi Ichimura
Former President and Founder
East Asian Economic Association
Emeritus Professor of Economics
Kyoto University
“The strong point of the book is the way the author combines economic theory with examples of ASEAN … The book seriously attempts to offer a holistic view of ASEAN; the author provides a detailed overview of Southeast Asia and also explains the risks and opportunities confronting the region in the future.”
ASIEN
“… a real strength of the book is that Lim Chong Yah is both a technically competent academic economist and a genuine long-time participant in the policy evolution of the area … Overall, this is a solid effort. The book could be used as a textbook at many levels for a course on the economies of Southeast Asia or as supplementary reading in a development course. The book is not technically challenging, and there is just the right blend of data and theory so that the reader is left with a substantive framework for understanding the region's economy. Beyond the classroom, the book would be valuable to policy-makers or anyone else generally interested in the economics of one of the more fascinating regions of the world.”
Journal of Asian Business
Born in the British Straits Settlement of Malacca in 1932, Lim Chong Yah was awarded a Malacca Settlement Scholarship to study Economics at the University of Malaya, then located in Singapore. Later, he won a British Commonwealth Scholarship to read Economics at the University of Oxford, where he obtained his doctorate. He taught Economics at the University of Malaya (in Kuala Lumpur), where he became the first Head of the Division of Applied Economics. Subsequently he was Reader and later Professor and Senior Professor of Economics at the University of Singapore (later renamed the National University of Singapore), where he was also Head of the Department. He is currently Professor of Economics at the Nanyang Technological University and Emeritus Professor at the National University of Singapore. For his eminent scholarship and outstanding public service, Prof Lim has received many distinguished awards, including The Distinguished Service Award by the National Trades Union Congress in 1999 and The Distinguished Service Order (Darjah Utama Bakti Cemerlang) by the Singapore Government in 2000. There is also a professorship under his name, established by the National University of Singapore. He was conferred the Doctor Honoris Causa by Soka University in Japan, awarded an Honorary Professorship by Hainan University, and appointed Honorary Chairman of the Hainan University Council by the Provincial Government of Hainan. Indiana University conferred on him the John W Ryan Alumni Award for “Distinguished Contribution to International Education”.
