著者

阿部 清司

出版者

千葉大学

雑誌

千葉大学経済研究 (ISSN:09127216)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.23, no.3, pp.399-418, 2008-12

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Argentina suffered from severe economic crisis in 2001, which was triggered by the dollar peg, excessive issues of national bonds and the IMF policy package. More fundamentally, the crisis was caused by the bad governance, the widespread corruption, the lack of industrialization, the lack of modern market mechanism, the lack of democracy, the lack of response to the globalization, etc. Argentina has attained independence since 1816, but there still exist political rivalry between local and central governments. The disunity has inhibited any modern social reform, with the old social system still dominating the country. Argentina now lives on the century-old heritages with any social modernization neglected from generation to generation. The lacks that caused the crisis were also pointed out by the socalled Okita Report which was produced by the joint Argentina-Japanese research team headed by Dr. Saburo Okita. The Okita Report 1 of 1986 makes an in-depth analysis of macro economy, agriculture, industry, transportation and foreign trade of Argentina with valuable policy recommendations. The Okita Report 2 of 1996 focused on foreign trade, especially trade with Asian countries, and foreign direct investment from Asia, pointing out strongly the lack of willingness to export, develop and modernize. The Okita Reports mean a culmination of good relations between Argentina and Japan. A revaluation of the Okita Report was done at a conference in Buenos Aires in 2006, twenty years after the Okita Report 1. Many participants admitted that the value of the Okita Report for Argentina Economy remains intact. Its practical proposal the essence of which contains the need of industrialization will retain its precious value for the future for Argentina. It will be referred to by farsighted policy makers of Argentina in coping with the tide of globalization. Otherwise, Argentina would remain underdeveloped while other Latin American countries make further progress.