New Development Strategies under Globalization: Foreign Direct Investment and International Commercial Policy in Southeast Asia

With the rapid progress of globalization there has been increasing demand for a fundamentally different policy framework for industrial development in less developed countries (LDCs). Today LDCs are facing a vastly changed economic environment. Corporate activities have rapidly globalized and channels of international transactions have become ever more diversified. Enforcement power has been given to the international policy discipline imposed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and participation in the formation of free trade agreement (FTA) networks has become a sort of obsession. In the 1950s and 1960s developing countries such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan existed in a much quieter world and took a lot of time to foster their firms and industries. Today’s LDCs cannot afford to be slow in building up the foundations of economic development. The key issue when formulating development strategies is how to catch up with the wave of globalization.