Innovative Asia: Advancing the Knowledge-Based Economy—Highlights of the Forthcoming ADB Study Report

This paper provides highlights from an ADB study titled “Asia’s Knowledge Economies: Next Policy Agenda”. The study outlines policy actions required in developing member countries of ADB to advance as knowledge based economies. It identifies how emerging economies can draw on game-changing technology trends and other developments to move faster toward the global knowledge frontier.

This study argues that there are three ways in which emerging economies of Asia and the Pacific can pursue knowledge-based economic development in the current times: the first is learning from the KBE journey of advanced economies and making appropriate investments and policy reforms; the second is exploiting the unique strengths and endowments of the region by pursuing strategies that amplify such strengths; and the third is leveraging game-changing trends in technology and business processes that can enable emerging economies to leapfrog technology development cycles and catch up with the latest.