The East Asian Economic Model Bears Bitter Fruit

The connotations of the East Asian economic model may be discussed on the basis of three aspects. First, it is the concept of a market-economy management method as represented by Japan, a sort of market economy of the government-guided pattern (>i>zhengfu zhudao xing de shichang jingji tizhi>/i>). Second, it is the concept of a market-economy development orientation (>i>shichang jingji fazhan daoxiang>/i>), a kind of outward-oriented economy with foreign trade growth as its guiding mechanism. Third, it places extremely great importance on the productive forces, especially on those of the mother country. Japan's modernization began with traditional industries and step by step developed toward the high-end technology and information industries that created a large number of world-class enterprises and brand names. The same thing goes for South Korea. In these three respects, the first connotation is subordinate to the second; in other words, the market economy of the government-guided pattern serves the strategy of the outward-oriented economy. And the first and second connotations both exist in terms of the third connotation; in other words, the market economy of the government-guided pattern and the outward-oriented economic strategy both serve the development of the domestic forces of production. Proof of this is the strategy that stipulates the build up of the nation by means of technology put forward by Japan in the 1980s and the strategy that stipulates the build up of the nation by means of science and technology formulated by South Korea in the early 1990s. Hence, the chief characteristic of the East Asian economic model is that the government plays a most important and guiding role in economic operations and development.