It is generally recognized that the countries whose economies have performed best have been those which were able to take maximum advantage of the expansion in world trade through increasing their share of global exports. It is also widely agreed that the single most important variable bearing upon a country's export performance is the domestic policy environment. There is considerable agreement among economists about the general direction of policy reforms needed to bring about structural adjustment.

Much more contentious, however, is the question of how to implement policy reforms. Why do some countries seem more able to bring about change than others?

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This book is concerned with the experiences of six countries in grappling with the imperatives of economic policy reform. In the 1980s governments in Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Australia have all been acutely concerned with boosting export performance - in particular encouraging manufactured exports - rather than continuing to rely on selling primary commodities.

This innovative study brings together specialist economists and political scientists to explain the differing performances of these countries in the struggle to bring about reform in order to achieve economic competitiveness, growth, and development.