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Unit twenty-eight
The Transnational Economic Zone
Borders these days have little meaning for Singapore-based regional executives of electronics firms like Sanyo and Philips. More and more of them are commuting every day from their offices in the city-state to factories on the Indonesian island of Batam, 45 minutes away by high-speed ferry.
The Singapore managers are denizens of a new, almost borderless region – in their case embracing Singapore and parts of Malaysia and Indonesia – that economists define as a “transnational economic zone” and layman have come to call a “growth triangle”. Overlapping three or more countries, the zones are taking advantage of low labor and land costs in one nation and surplus capital and technological sophistication in others to build export-oriented industry and attract foreign investment. Since Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong first mentioned the term in 1989, growth triangles have begun to spread across East Asia. “Prosperity is our goal, and that prosperity should be shared ,” says Tun Daim Zainuddin, a former Malaysian Finance Minister who is charged with overseeing this country’s participation in the schemes.
The rush to triangulate is largely driven by two factors: the worldwide recession and the perceived threat of protectionism from emerging trade blocs in Europe and North America. Against that backdrop, Asian economies whose fast growth, competitive edge and export-to-the-West strategies earned them the sobriquets of “dragons” and “tigers” are increasingly gearing up toward regional cooperation – without the kind of formal accord exemplified by the North American free Trade Agreement. Last week an Ambitious tariff-cutting program by the six countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations formally went into effect, but if will take at least 15 years to reach their goal.
“The growth triangle is a cooperative arrangement which countries can walk away from any time they choose,” says Myo Thant, an Asian Development Bank authority on the topic. “It’s the difference between marriage and a live-in girlfriend. There are no ties that bind except those of self-interest.”
Eager to take advantage of low mainland wages, Hong Kong manufacturers moved labor-intensive industries like garments and electronics across the border, generating employment for an estimated 3 million men and women in he People’s Republic, then shifted into the manufacture of higher value-added products in fields like biotechnology. During the ‘80s, despite continuing anxiety in the Crown Colony about its future after the reassertion of Chinese sovereignty in 1997, Hong Kong surpassed the U.S. as the biggest outside investor on the mainland; in 1992 it injected a record $39.6 billion into the Chinese economy.
commute vi.乘公交车上下班,经常乘车(或船等) vt. 1.减刑 2.折合,折偿 n.上下班交通
ferry n.渡船 vt.渡运
[联想词] dock n.码头,船埠 vt.进港,靠码头
traverse vt.横渡,横越
strand n.1.(线等的)股,缕 2.一个组成部分 vt.使搁浅
shipment n.1.装运,装船 2.装载的货物
denizen n.1.居民 2.外籍居民
overlap v.1.(与…)部分重叠 2.(与…)部分相同 n.重叠,重叠的部分
orient vt. 1.使适应,使熟悉情况(或环境) 2.使朝向,以…为方向(或目标) n.东方,亚洲(尤指远东),东半球
oriental a.东方的,东方人的,东方文化的
orientation n.1.方向,目标,方位 2.熟悉情况,适应,情况介绍
[联想词] clockwise ad.顺时针方向地 a.顺时针方向的
participate vi.参与,参加
participation n.1.参与,参加 2.分享
participant n.参加者,参与者
bloc n.(国家,政党,团体为某种共同目的而结合的)集团
[联想词] alliance n.结盟,联盟
coalition n.1.结合体,同盟 2.结合,联合
sobriquet n.假名,绰号
[联想词] nickname n.绰号,诨名
anonymous a.匿名的,无名的,不具名的
exemplify vt. 1.是(或作为)…的典型(或榜样) 2.例示,举例说明
[联想词] embody vt. 1.使具体化,具体表现,体现 2.包括,包含,收入
expertise n.专门知识(或技能等)
cooperative a.1.有合作意向的,乐于合作的 2.合作的,协作的 n.合作社,合作商店(或企业)
garment n.(一件)衣服
assert vt. 1.肯定
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