Southeast Asia is in the midst of an economic transformation. Only two decades ago, the region showed few signs of the rapid growth that was even then beginning to take shape. Today that growth is unambiguous. Southeast Asian economies have recorded sustained growth rates rivalling those of any other country in the world, except perhaps China. Between 1980 and 1990, manufacturing grew at a rate of 8.8 per cent per annum in Malaysia, 8.9 per cent in Thailand, 6.6 per cent in Singapore and 12.5 per cent in Indonesia. In the 1990s, despite dramatic downturns in the core industrial economies of the United States, Europe and Japan, the pace of growth in Southeast Asia has not lessened; GNP in most ASEAN countries has grown at an annual rate of between 7.5 and 10 per cent. Even the Philippines has begun to show signs of awakening, with recent growth approaching 5 per cent.