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In terms of the growth rates of world economies, there has been
a sharp movement away from the developed nations of Europe and North America
to this region. In the last 15 years, the growth of the former group, as
indicated by the growth rate of the economies of the CECD countries
averaged 4% a year at constant prices. I have no consolidated figures for
the Far East region. But, to pick some examples: over the same period,
the economy of Japan grew annually by 8%, the Republic of Korea by 11%, the
Philippines by 6%, Singapore by 9%, Thailand by 8% and Hong Kong by 9%.
The reasons why the East-Asie region has become an area of such
dynamic economic growth are complex and diverse. But I would certainly
attribute much to a general willingness to work and work hard, to the
business acumen of so many of the people who live in the region, and to
that pioneer spirit which has driven them to acquire the expertise to enable
them to exploit the potential of wherever it is they may be living, and to
master the techniques necessary for them to go abroad and to search out
markets for their products and their services and when necessary to acquire
This driving enterprise has been aided by demographic factors
which have tended in some cases to cause labour forces to grow at a higher
rate than populations as a whole, a trend which, at a certain stage, tends
to stimulate economic growth,
investment.
Yet nowhere in the region has the population been so heavy or
the poverty so intense that the thrust of econoric activity has been
blunted by the sheer effort necessary to achieve subsistence. There has
not been that awful and totally frustrating problem of finding the point of
take-off, that firm base from which economic progress can effectively be
achieved. And, of course, some nations have been fortunate enough to be
/endowed with
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