Choose a change and judge how significant it was.
Which economic change mattered most?
Agricultural modernisation
- Indonesia self-sufficient in rice by 1984.
- Malaysia's shift to oil palm.
It raised output and touched the most lives.
Gains were uneven; many farmers stayed poor.
From ISI to EOI
- Singapore from the mid-1960s.
- Malaysia's free trade zones from 1971.
It drove growth, jobs and exports.
Uneven: slow in the Philippines, absent in Burma.
Financial services
- Asian Dollar Market, 1968.
- Banks freed in Indonesia and Thailand.
It made Singapore a financial centre.
Rapid opening helped cause the 1997 crisis.
Economic nationalism
- Indonesia seizes Dutch firms, 1957-1958.
- Malaysia's NEP ownership target.
It increased local control.
Nationalisation often slowed growth.