Ho - Greening Industries

GREENING INDUSTRIES IN NEWLY INDUSTRIALIZING ECONOMIES

Over the past decades, the world has witnessed the profound transformation of China, Vietnam, Taiwan and Singapore from impoverished developing regions into strong and internationally competitive economies. Also dubbed as Newly Industrializing Economies (NIEs), it has become obvious that their rapid development has come at a price. Contrary to their economic successes, these NIEs have been much less successful in terms of ecological sustainability and environmental protection. Mega-cities, such as Shanghai, Taipei, and Ho Chi Minh City suffer from increased air pollution, traffic congestion and a boom in the generation of solid waste. The rapid industrialization in the NICs poses a dual challenge to the state. If economic development is to be sustainable in the long run, the state needs to manage and channel processes of industrialization and the environmental pressures these entail. A critical question in this respect is: how can the state effect the greening of industries and business without inhibiting economic growth?

In seeking to answer this question, some scholars have argued that NIEs are situated at an unique juncture: they have an unparalleled opportunity to find different development paths and in so doing to provide models that other countries could follow. Put simply, with the right policy mix, they might achieve rapid economic development while avoiding environmental degradation on the scale of that created by the United States, European Union, Japan, and other earlier industrialized nations. Doing it right the first time by installing clean, efficient technologies as well as developing the institutional capacity and the appropriate governance style to enforce environmental regulations could lead to leapfrogging the development process and building industrial economies that are both competitive and more sustainable than those of economies with an older industrial base.

The edited volume attempts to probe into this critical issue by examining case-studies from China, Vietnam, Taiwan and Singapore. It is argued that the NIEs first and second generations alike are not truly situated in a more favourable position that allows leapfrogging in the greening of industries. This book brings together an interdisciplinary team of leading experts in their field, ranging from development studies, sociology, political studies, and economics. The edited volume fits in with the larger, international body of studies on environmental management and the greening of industries. Its findings are, therefore, relevant for many other developing countries. This book will be of interest to students of development studies, and contemporary Asia, with particular reference to environmental studies, industrial pollution control, environmental movements, newly industrializing countries, and developmental state theory. The book will also address a wide readership of professionals and consultants in various state institutions and international development agencies, such as the World Bank, the United Nations Environment Program, the Ford Foundation and the Asian Development Bank.

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Greening Industries in Newly Industrializing Economies: Asian
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Peter Ho, ed.

GREENING INDUSTRIES IN NEWLY INDUSTRIALIZING ECONOMIES

Edited by Peter Ho

First published in 2006 by
Kegan Paul Limited

Published 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX 14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Peter Ho, 2006

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electric, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying or recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Greening industries in newly industrializing economies: Asian-style leapfrogging. - (Kegan Paul studies in anthropology, economy and society)
1. Industries - Environmental aspects - China 2. Industries - Environmental aspects -Taiwan 3. Industries - Environmental aspects - Southeast Asia 4. Environmental policy - China 5. Environmental policy -Taiwan 6. Environmental policy - Southeast Asia 7. Sustaina le development -China 8. Sustainable development -Taiwan 9. Sustainable development - Southeast Asia
I. Ho, Peter, 1968
338.927095
ISBN-13: 9780710313102
ISBN 978-0-710-31310-2 (hbk)

CONTENTS

Peter Ho

Arthur P.J. Mol and Liu Ying

Katherine Kao Cushing, Heather McGray and Hongyan Lu

Yi Liu, Arthur P. J. Mol and Jining Chen

Le Van Khoa and Peter Ho

Wen-Ling Tu

Li-Fang Yang

Josephine Chinying Lang

Over the past few decades, the world has witnessed the profound transformation of Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan from impoverished developing regions into strong and internationally competitive economies. Since 1965, these four economies, have quadrupled their share of world production and trade and quintupled their per capita incomes. Over 196586, the per capita GDP in each one grew at least 6 percent per year by comparison, during the same period, Japan and the United States registered respectively annual increases of 4.3 and 1.6 percent. The experience of these four economies, popularly dubbed the four Little Tigers of Asia, sparked great academic interest in the study of so-called Newly Industrializing Economies or Newly Industrializing Countries (NIE or NIC). Different scholars tend to label different economies as NICs, or when taking the timing of industrialization into account first and second generation NICs. The general consensus is, however, that various economies in South and Latin America, as well as in Asia could be termed NICs, including Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. In this volume, we will focus on four of these: China, Vietnam, Singapore and Taiwan. It should be noted that for the sake of argument, the NICs are here conceived primarily as economies, rather than countries or nations. For instance, Hong Kong used to be a colony of the United Kingdom until 1997 when it became a special administrative region under China. In addition, Singapore and formerly Hong Kong as city-states are not confronted with many of the sharp rural-urban divisions characteristic of most developing countries.