The Asian Insider (Michael Backman) 0 comments

Michael Backman is a well-known columnist and author who specialises in Asia, and has lived and worked in Asia for many years. This mix of Western perspective and Asian experience has facilitated key insights into the Asian socio-economic sphere that have been shared both in this book and its predecessor, Asian Eclipse, which was named by The Economist as one of the best general non-fiction books of the year when it was published in the late 1990s/early 2000s.

Unlike the former book, The Asian Insider talks less about corporate (mal)practices in Asian economies (such as family conglomerates, related party transactions, corruption) and instead gives a more general overview of the various Asian economies, discusses some of the big Asian trends, and explores Asian cultures --- hence the "insider" in the title.

There is something in this book for different people interested in different parts of the Asian ecosystem. For those interested in Asian corporate practices, he still talks about his pet topic: family/government connections within Asian conglomerates, and the inevitable corruption and improper transactions that emanate from such an omelette structure of overlapping interests. For those looking for key trends in Asia in the coming years, he discusses a few in detail: growing linkages with the Middle East, a declining Japan, a growing China, India's outsourcing economy. There is even a section focusing on Singapore and Malaysia, both of which the author admires greatly for their relatively transparent and untainted corporate cultures compared to many other Asian economies (he was especially scornful of Indonesia in his last book). It is astonishing how much more he knows about Singapore than the average Singaporean; read the sections on Temasek Holdings and GIC, as well as Singapore's "thriving sex industry".

To me, the most interesting part of the book is its last and longest one, which explores the key North-east Asian economies Japan, China, India and North Korea. Besides discussing the key trends and developments, he also takes an inside look at the various key cities within these countries, such as Shanghai and Beijing in China, and Mumbai and Bangalore in India; this really gives a good picture of the dynamism that is driving the growing economies. In fact, it makes the reader keen to visit these cities to see things for themselves.

The tone of this book is considerably more optimistic about Asia than Backman's last book which explored Asia's complex business structures and gave generally unfavourable opinions on countries like Indonesia and China. (To an Asian, corruption seems like acceptable methods to grease the wheels of commerce and build relationships; to Westerners, it leads to poor corporate transparency and unprofessional capital allocation; that's why his Western perspective was so useful). Given that the last one was written in the wake of the Asian financial collapse while The Asian Insider was penned in 2004 when Asian economies are booming, it is not surprising. It is still worth reading although I think Asian Eclipse was a better-written one and a hard act to follow; I will probably review that book later.