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.
