This book aims to shed light on the potentially innovative ICT (information and communication
technology) architectures from an East Asian regional perspective. The business environment
brought about by the development of ICT intensified global competition and caused dramatic
changes in the industrial architecture. Firms that are involved in manufacturing and
maintenance of ICT hardware and that offer services for software development are continuously
being created giving rise to the provision of new and diverse services to an increasingly
growing East Asian regional market. Such industrial activities are advancing the shift from an
old to a new industrial architecture. Some parts of emerging economies have grasped this edge
on economic globalization and informatization and have adopted business models that enable them
to enter the world economy. Entering this century China the Philippines and Vietnam in East
Asia have been rapidly expanding their ICT-BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) businesses as
destinations of offshoring of service activities by firms in the advanced economies following
India's example. Policy makers and firms in those countries are also meeting the challenge of
catching up with advanced economies through the development of such industries. It has enabled
those economies to exploit new possibilities of further development which may mean a new stage
of manufacturing cum services in an ICT- and knowledge-based economy.
