The six countries of the association of southeast asian nations, ASEAN (comprising Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand), together constitute only about 1.5 percent of the world economy. In the East Asian context, they tend to be overshadowed by the larger, more industrialized Northeast Asian NIEs (newly industrializing economies), and the recent extraordinary growth of China. But ASEAN is far more important than its economic share might suggest. First, most of the economies are growing much faster than the rest of the world. This means their share of the world economy is rising. It also means that, unless the good performance is due wholly to luck or good fortune, there must be something about these economies, their organization, and their public policies, that other, poorer performing countries could well emulate. Second, ASEAN is more important according to other yardsticks. Its share of the world's population, 6 percent, is four times its share of the economy. Moreover, most of these economies are outwardlooking in orientation, with the result that the region's trade share is about three times its share of the world economy.
