Is there an Asian model of information infrastructure development?

Much of the booming expansion of telecom infrastructure and services in developing countries is triggered by significant reforms in market structure and ownership. However, in a world-wide trend towards privatization and liberalization, Asian states have distinctively managed to stay involved in the reform of the telecoms and information sectors. Nowhere else has the state attempted to maintain the control that it has in Asia, to manage the process of reform. In contrast to other regions, Asian countries have chosen to retain state ownership and control of service provision and have allowed partial competition. However, a macro, international, comparison blurs details and makes Asian telecom reforms appear quite homogeneous. A closer look, instead, shows substantial variation of policy choices among the countries in the region. The paper applies a model of state-governed economic development in the Asian region to the telecommunications reform process and the emerging information superhighway initiatives as a means of examining the different industrial strategies in the region.