Taiwan and ASEAN: Another Approach to Economic Cooperation

Abstract

Taiwan`s role as ASEAN`s principal foreign direct investor has been economically beneficial to both. However, the East Asian financial crisis that began in July 1997 has drastically changed the economic interactions between Taiwan, mainland China, and ASEAN. This article will explore this new economic environment in East Asia. The first section will review Taiwan`s economic interaction with ASEAN during the past fifteen years and discuss the impact of the economic crisis, highlighting the lessons that East Asian countries can learn. The second part will deal with ways of increasing economic cooperation between Taiwan and the ASEAN countries in the future. The main argument of this article is that the best way for mainland China, Taiwan, and ASEAN to obtain a win-win-win result is for each side to give up political considerations and concentrate on solving their collective economic problems.