Asia-Pacific region: market, development, cooperation

The Pacific region is the largest market in the world, and its potential is far from exhausted. Moreover, according to forecasts of leading experts, in the future the share of this region in the world market will only expand. Let's learn more in detail what the Asia-Pacific region is. We will separately dwell on the prospects and forecasts of its development.

Territory of the region

First of all, let's find out what the Asia-Pacific region is in terms of territorial distribution. Traditionally, the countries that are included in this region are the states located on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, as well as Mongolia and Laos.

The whole of the Asia-Pacific region can be conditionally divided into 4 regions that correspond to parts of the world where the states that are part of it are located: North American, South American, Oceanic and Asian. In addition, the Asian region is conventionally divided into two subareas: it is North Asia and South-East Asia.

The North American region includes the following countries: Canada, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa-Pica, Panama.

The South American region includes the states: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile.

The North Asian sub-region includes such countries as China (China), Mongolia, Japan, the DPRK, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Russia. The countries of the Asia-Pacific region of this particular group occupy the largest territory, and have in total the highest population.

The sub-region of Southeast Asia includes the following countries: Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Laos, Brunei, Thailand. Many specialists include Myanmar and Nepal here. In addition, in some cases, India also acts as a member of the Asia-Pacific region, but considering that cases of India's inclusion in the region by specialists are still quite rare, and the country itself has no outlet to the Pacific Ocean, we will not consider it in the As a subject of the ATR.

The oceanic region includes many states of Oceania, most of which are rather small. Among the largest countries, both territorially and economically, this region should be allocated to Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Smaller states: Fiji, Solomon Islands, Palau, Nauru, Federation of Micronesia, Vanuatu, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Cook Islands, Tonga, Samoa. This includes a number of dependent territories, such as Guam, Tokelau, French Polynesia, and others.

History of the region

To more accurately understand what the Pacific region is, you need to delve deeper into its history.

The oldest state formation of this region can be considered China. He deservedly is considered one of the cradles of civilization on earth. The first state formations here arose in the III millennium BC. E. This makes the most ancient state of China (the Asia-Pacific region), such as Egypt and Mesopotamia - the oldest civilizations of the Middle East.

Later, states appeared in Southeast Asia (the largest of them was the empire of Kambujadesh), in Japan and Korea. China has become a territory on which various empires have been successively replaced, and a kind of cultural and economic center of the region. Even after the formation of the great Eurasian empire of the Mongols in the 13th century, which united the mainland's lands from Russia to the Pacific (in fact, the western part of the modern Asia-Pacific region), Khanbalyk (present-day Beijing) made Chingizid's main capital, and adopted Chinese traditions and culture.

Russia first came to the Pacific coast in the XVII century. Since then, the interests of this state are inextricably linked with the region. Already in 1689, the Nerchinsk Treaty was signed, the first official document between Russia and China, in which the delineation of the zones of influence of these countries in the region was indicated. Throughout the next centuries, the Russian Empire expanded its zone of influence in the Far East, which makes it possible to call the modern Russian Federation an unconditional part of the Asia-Pacific region.

State formations on the west coast of the American continent, which paradoxically is the eastern part of the Asia-Pacific region, appeared much later than in Asia. The formation of the Peruvian "kingdom" of Cuzco, from which the famous Inca empire appeared in the 15th century, dates back to 1197 AD. The Aztec Empire in Mexico arose even later.

But different parts of the huge region, now known as the ATR, were scattered during the period we discussed above, and the inhabitants of the western coast of the Pacific knew nothing about the inhabitants of the east coast, and vice versa. In a single whole, the Asia-Pacific region began to gradually change only after the Great geographical discoveries of the XV-XVII centuries. It was then that Columbus discovered America, and Magellan made a round-the-world trip. Of course, the integration of the economy in the early stages was rather slow, but nevertheless in the XVI century, the Philippines was included in the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain with a center in Mexico.

In 1846, after the cession of Great Britain to Oregon, the Pacific country became one of the most rapidly developing states of the time - the United States. After the accession of California two years later, the United States reached the Pacific Ocean with a wide band and soon became the region's leading power, greatly influencing its economy and markets. It was after the expansion of the US to the west coast in the XIX century, the Pacific region began to acquire features of economic unity.

But more or less close to the modern political and economic shape of the ATR acquired only after the colonial sections of the XIX century, two world wars and the process of decolonization. During the Second World War, the Japanese Empire, relying on an alliance with Hitler's Germany, attempted to secure a dominant position in the region with the help of military force, but was defeated by Allied forces.

Modernity

After World War II, like the rest of the world, the APR countries actually divided into two political camps: the countries of the socialist model of development and the capitalist one. In the first camp, the leaders were the USSR and China (although there were also ideological conflicts between these countries), in the second, the United States dominated. In addition to the USA, Canada, Japan and Australia were the most economically developed countries of the APR from the capitalist camp. After a certain time it became clear that, despite the presence of many shortcomings, the capitalist (Western) model of economic development proved itself as more successful.

Even defeated after the Second World War, Japan, which chose the Western model of development, thanks to the help of the United States, in a relatively short period of time became one of the most economically developed countries, not only of the region, but of the world as a whole. This phenomenon was called the "Japanese economic miracle." In the late 80's, the economy of this country even threatened to come first in the world in terms of GDP, but this did not happen because of the economic crisis.

In addition, since the 60s of the 20th century, four Asian tigers demonstrated very high economic indices. So called the following countries: the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Their level of development exceeded even the level of some Western European countries. Thailand and the Philippines also demonstrated good rates of development. But in the countries of the socialist camp, in particular, in Vietnam, Mongolia, Laos, Cambodia and North Korea, the economy developed much worse.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the political situation in the region has changed dramatically. Even a state like China refused from a pure socialist model of the economy, which, incidentally, allowed the latter to become one of the leaders of the world economy in the future. Similar changes, however, are not so successful, have occurred in some other socialist countries included in the Asia-Pacific region. Politics was pushed into the background in Vietnam. There, despite the prevailing Marxist ideology, as in China, elements of a market economy were introduced. Cambodia in general renounced the socialist doctrine.

After the collapse of the USSR, Russia lost its leading position in the region both economically and politically, but since the early 2000s, demonstrating significant economic growth, has largely been able to regain what it has lost.

The Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 caused a significant impact on the economy of the region. The most affected were "Four Asian Tigers". The crisis sharply stopped their economic growth. A powerful blow was also inflicted on the Japanese economy. This crisis was one of the reasons for the default in Russia since 1998. Many current problems of the Asia-Pacific region have origins in these crisis events.

China's economy also suffered, but, in comparison with the above-mentioned countries, not so much that it allowed us to resume growth soon at a faster pace. In 2014, China's economy ranked first in the world, surpassing the US GDP and purchasing power parity. The leader in this indicator, China remains at the present time, although so far it is inferior to the United States in terms of nominal GDP. In addition, now goods from China dominate the market of the Asia-Pacific region, mainly because of its relatively low cost.

The global economic crisis of 2008 also had a negative impact on the economy of the region, but not so detrimental as the 1997 Asian crisis. Thus, the ATR today is one of the most powerful global economic regions, along with the eastern coast of America and Western Europe.

Leading countries

Next, we will talk about which countries currently dominate in this region, and at the expense of what resources they do.

The fact that the Asia-Pacific region is the leader in the world economy is proved by the fact that three countries of the region (the United States, China and Japan) rank first in the world in terms of nominal GDP. In terms of GDP (PPP), China and the United States are leading. The third place is occupied by India, which some experts also refer to the APR. The top ten leaders in this indicator include countries such as Japan, Russia and Indonesia.

The most populous country in the world is also one of the APR states - China. To date, the population of this country has exceeded 1.3 billion people. The top ten countries also include such countries of the region as the USA and Indonesia. Russia and Japan.

The Asia-Pacific region includes four of the largest countries in the world: Russia, Canada, China and the United States. In addition, the top ten countries include Australia (6th place).

ATR as part of the world market

If we consider the totality of the economies of all the countries belonging to the Asia-Pacific region, then we can say with certainty that this region is the largest world market, with which, given all the economies of countries such as the US, China and Russia, the European market at this stage can not To compete. Ahead of Europe, the Asia-Pacific region made a kind of breakthrough. Experts predict an even more significant lag in the total economy of the EU and other European countries from the Asia-Pacific economy in the future.

Now the market of the Asia-Pacific region is particularly in demand for goods, the manufacture of which uses the latest electronic technology.

Cooperation and Integration

Interstate cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region plays a rather significant role in the coordination of relations between countries. Integration between different countries of the region is expressed in the creation of various economic and political associations.

The most significant of them are: the political-economic organization ASEAN (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, Myanmar), SCO (Russia, China, India, Pakistan and a number of Central Asian countries of the CIS) -Pacific cooperation (APEC) (21 countries in the region, including the US, China and Russia).

In addition, there are a number of smaller organizations that, unlike the above-mentioned ones, do not cover all spheres of economic activity of states, but specialize in particular sectors. For example, the Asian Development Bank specializes in the financial sphere of activity.

The largest economic centers

The largest cities, political and economic centers of the region are: Los Angeles, San Francisco (USA), Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing (China), Taipei (Taiwan), Tokyo (Japan), Seoul (South Korea), Jakarta (Indonesia ), Sydney, Melbourne (Australia), Singapore.

Sometimes among the centers the city is also called Moscow. Although it is located far from the Pacific Ocean, it nevertheless is the capital and largest metropolis of the territorially the largest Pacific power - Russia.

The role of Russia in the Asia-Pacific Region

The importance of Russia for the Asia-Pacific cooperation can not be overestimated. She is one of the leaders of the SCO organization, which also includes China, which is one of the largest integration projects in the region. Also, Russia is the largest country in terms of area of those that are part of the Asia-Pacific region. Russia has also been honored to be among the world's top ten economies in terms of GDP, which further underscores its importance in the region.

The Russian government places the greatest hopes on expanding cooperation with another regional leader, China.

Forecasts of development

The further development of the Asia-Pacific region depends on a variety of economic and political factors. At the same time, one can now say that the region has become one of the leaders in the world economy. And in the future it is planned to move the world economic centers from Western Europe and the eastern coast of the USA to the territory of the Asia-Pacific Region .

By 2030, the countries of the region expect an increase in total GDP by 70%.

Value of the region

The Asia-Pacific region is one of the three largest world economic regions, along with the East American and West European ones. But, unlike these regions, whose business activity is gradually dying out, the ATR, on the contrary, is a very promising place, where the main economic processes move.

According to most experts, it is the Asia-Pacific region that is the center that will dominate the global economy in the near future.