Comunidad del pacífico en perspectiva - Volumen 2

.AN AUSTRALlAN VU:W OF nu: P ACIFIC BASIN America on the Eastern rim of the Pacifico The Asian Pacific economy now ranks along side the Atlantic economy as a major centre of world economic activity. If North America is included in both these economic regions, the Asian Pacific economy, although smaller in some dimensions, is of the same order of magnitude as the Atlantic in population size, resource base, GDP, trade share and industrial capacity. More– over, the Asian Pacific economy is growing at a considerably fas– ter pace. Moreover, the Asian Pacific countries (excluding North Ame– rica) exhibit a heavy concentration of trade within the region. This is clearly demonstrated by the table in Appendix 1, which shows that Japan conducts almost haH its trade in this way. This increased importance of the Asian Pacific area both with: in the world economy and, to the extent of economic interdepen– dence, to the individual Asia Pacific economies can be attributed to three basic factors: 1. The growth of J apanese industrial strength. During the late 60's and the 70's J apan has overtaken the OECD countries in terms of income per head and is the third largest economy in the world after the United States and the USSR. Its impact on the Western rim countries has been in the demand for mine– rals and foodstuffs, and in the ability to finance investment in other countries for labour intensive manufactures. 2. The speed of industrialisation in the developing economies in the Western rimo As a result of Japanese growth the resource– rieh countries, particularly Australia, have benefitted greatly from major investments, specifically oriented to meet Japane– se demands. The move to a policy of trade oriented industria– lisation, as opposed to protectionist import substitution poli– des, has predpitated the growth of South Korea, Taiwan, Sin– gapore and Hong-Kong, despite rises in the price of oil, and these countries remain among the fastest growing in the world. 3. The formation of the EEC coupled with slower growth in West– ern Europe. This has served to highlight the prominence of 81