Professor of Institute of Oriental Culture, Tokyo University
Koichi Fujita
Associate Professor of the Agricultural Life Science
Graduate School, Tokyo University
1. South East Asia
1) Economic Development and the Incidence of Agricultural Problems
In the South East Asian region, with the exception of the Philippines, all ASEAN countries have achieved continuous economic growth during the last quarter century. When the per capita income growth rate is considered, the last decade (1985-94) has seen Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia record the high economic growth rate at 8.6%, 6.0% and 5.6% respectively. In comparison to the high economic growth rate of the other ASEAN countries, the Philippines is the exception at only 1.7%.
Per capita national income levels in 1994 were US$880 in Indonesia, US$ that of in Thailand and US$3,480 in Malaysia as a result of this high economic growth, but it struggled to reach approximately US$950 in the Philippines. If we consider the estimated value of the purchasing power parity standard to compare the relative standards of life, we see that the cost for non-traded goods is fairly low for developing countries, and we get figures of US$3,600 for Indonesia, US$6,260 for Thailand and US$7,050 for Malaysia, but only US$2,740 for the Philippines, which is slightly less than the Indonesian figure.
The ratio of agricultural production out of the gross domestic product has fallen significantly in these ASEAN countries, and becomes now very similar to that of the developed countries (Table 1). It can be said that these ASEAN countries are no longer agricultural countries.
The agricultural portion in the national economy is larger in Vietnam where the shift to a market economy has only recently begun with the introduction of the Doi Moi policy. South East Asian countries other than Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are no longer deemed to be agricultural countries.
Foodgrain production has not shown a rapid decrease in these South East
