In the coming decades, globalization will force East Asian countries to come to terms with a far more demanding global market environment. Their ability to capitalize on the opportunities inherent in this environment will rest in no small part on acquired technological capability and IT skills and on how East Asian firms enlarge the gains from participating in global production networks. Government macroeconomic policies and institution building activities will be vital for sustaining competitiveness and growth but the initiative of firms will be the critical factor in assuring that the future for East Asia is as bright as the past three decades. The experience of a number of economies points insistently towards the contribution of large firms to innovation, as well as the branding and marketing of products on a global scale. An environment that is conducive to the growth of national firms that can compete against the multi-national corporations on world markets, match their innovative capability, and vie with them in creating global production networks would be part and parcel of a development strategy pegged to technological advance. The papers in Global Production Networking and Technological Change in East Asia, by leading experts in their respective fields, present some of the latest findings on global production networks, and the evolution of technological capability.
