Pollution Management Strategies in East Asian NIEs

newly industrializing economies (NIEs) is vast, rich, and highly contentious. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the literature on industrial pollution management in these economies. (These NIEs include China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan1, Thailand, and Singapore.) To begin with, there are relatively few studies of industrial pollution management in the East Asian NIEs, and those that do exist are largely descriptive or highly critical. Several trace the evolution of environmental laws and regulations (O’Connor 1994) and analyze the sources of weak industrial pollution management systems (World Bank 1993, 1994a, 1994b). Others examine the reasons for and environmental consequences of these governments’ apparent “grow first, clean up later” environmental strategies (Chun-Chieh 1994; Smil 1993; Eder 1996; Bello and Rosenfeld 1992; Komin 1993). Still others describe popular responses to growing urban environmental stress (Cribb 1990; Lee and So 1999). The picture presented by this body of work is one of urban environments that are rapidly deteriorating in the face of high-speed industrial growth. It is important to note that this picture is not entirely inaccurate. Some of the regions’ megacities—Bangkok, Beijing, Jakarta, and Shanghai—are among the dirtiest in the world. At least one analyst has contended (Lohani 1998), and Table 1-1 agrees, that Asia is the dirtiest place in the world. Moreover, a legacy of apparent environmental neglect in some places imposes large envi1