distinguishing between industry policy and 'industrial policy': a view from asia

The European Commission's 1999 Review is a forward looking study for the European market. However, looked at from Asia it raises a number of concerns and may even have the effect of slowing the pace of liberalization in the region. For while the Commission's report focuses on promoting competition in the converging communications market, it does so in terms of the strategic benefits to Europe. To many communications bureaucracies across Asia, faced with the challenge of stimulating the development of e-commerce, the report may well sound like a call to competitive advantage, rather than the promotion of open competition. In this paper we provide a snapshot of how the themes of convergence, competition and forthcoming communication services, as raised in the Commission's review, are playing out across Asia. We argue that domination by North American and European service companies remains a strong concern of many Asian governments and that in order to combat such domination, a number of Asian governments can be expected to promote strong domestic markets - at the expense of ongoing liberalization.