Institution and Human Resource Capacity Building in ASEAN

Book excerpt: Most southeast Asian countries have until recently had a long period of rapid and reasonably equitable growth. This remarkable performace was achieved largely because sound policies were implemented effectively by capable institutions with competent staff. This is especially true in key policy areas such as macroeconomic management, product transformations, trade and investment promotion, and infrastructure development. Many developing economies in Asia and the Pacific, including the new and potentially new members of ASEAN, namely Camodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Viet Nam, which are facing enormous challenges resulting from domestic economic reforms and exposure to the international economy, could benefit from the experiences of institution and human resource capacity building in older ASEAN countries. This publication contains an overview and four country studies of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.