State intervention and neoliberalism in the globalizing world economy: lessons from Singapore's regionalization programme

The recent 1997-98 Asian economic crisis has thrown Asia's divergent pathwa ys to development into serious question. Protagonists of neoliberalism argu e that their agenda is now becoming a global orthodoxy when several ailing Asian economies have accepted IMF packages which come with neoliberal econo mic programmes, Drawing on lessons from Singapore's regionalization program me, this article contends that it is far too early to conclude that Asian d evelopmental states are giving up their governance of domestic economies, I nstead, there is evidence that these Asian developmental states are re-regu lating their domestic economies to ride out of the economic crisis. The art icle first starts with the debate between neoliberalism and state developme ntalism in our understanding of global political economy. It then examines the political economy of Singapore's regionalization programme through whic h Singapore-based transnational corporations are strongly encouraged by the state to regionalize their operations, followed by a critical discussion o f the impact of the recent Asian economic crisis on the re-regulation of th e regionalization programme by the state in Singapore, Some lessons for Asi an emerging economies are suggested in the concluding section.