2.1 Some preliminaries
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the Asia-Pacific region is the diversity of its economies in level of development and structural characteristics. At one end of the spectrum are countries such as Australia, Japan and New Zealand which are among the most developed in the world; at the other end are countries such as Nepal which is among the least developed. In 1995, per capita GNP in the region ranged from US$200 in Nepal to nearly US$40,000 in Japan. Along with two of the largest countries of the world C China and India C the region also contains some of the smallest countries C the island countries of the Pacific. Some countries in East Asia are transition economies, i.e. in a process of transition from centrally planned to market economies. Another group of countries in East and Southeast Asia had been the fastest growing economies of the world until the onset of the recent economic crisis and had been dubbed Amiracle economies@; some of these countries (the Republic of Korea and Singapore in particular) can now be categorized as Adeveloped@. In contrast, the countries of South Asia, which are currently also in a process of transition from state-led to market-oriented systems, remain among the poorest and least developed.
This diversity explains the seemingly paradoxical aggregate picture: a dynamic region which also contains about two-thirds of the world's poor. It also means that the nature of the employment problem varies a great deal across countries, making generalizations about the region as a whole difficult. For a meaningful discussion of trends, issues and problems relating to employment and labour markets, it is necessary to divide the region into several reasonably homogeneous subregions. For the purpose of this report, five such subregions are identified: advanced industrialized economies; the fast-growing economies of East and Southeast Asia; the transition economies; the South Asian economies; and the island economies of the Pacific.
Another problem is that information, particularly information relating to employment and labour markets, either is unavailable or, if available, is seriously out of date for quite a number of countries of the region. This imposes certain unavoidable limitations on the analysis attempted in this chapter, though all efforts have been made to assemble the available information and to use the information optimally for identifying the major issues and problems relating to employment and for considering options for the future. Serious efforts will need to be made to improve the information base relating to employment and labour markets in individual countries.
