1. Compare and contrast the economic competitiveness of any two of South Korea, Japan, China and/or India.
2. Discuss what, in your view, are the most critical factors determining the competitiveness of your choice of any two Asian economies.
3. What have been the keys to the economic successes and/or failures of either China, India, Asia in general, Africa in general, or the Middle East (Arab world) in general, since 1945? Critically discuss.
4. Discuss the competitiveness and global growth prospects, challenges and opportunities for either China, India, Asia in general, Africa in general, or the Middle East (Arab world) in general, over the next decade or the next fifty years.
5. Former President Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore once stated: "Public order, personal security, economic and social progress, and prosperity, are not the natural order of things. They depend on ceaseless effort and attention from an honest and effective government that the people must elect," and also: "Nations must make themselves relevant to the world." Do you agree or disagree? Discuss using at least two Asian, African, or Middle Eastern countries as examples.
6. "At the end of the day, getting the incentives right and empowering the masses of the population is the answer to economic growth and competitiveness. For all of their problems, private property and competitive markets do this better than any of the other systems available." Critically discuss, using your choice of Asian, African, or Middle Eastern countries as examples.
7. Is Japan a setting or a rising sun? Explain. What does it need to do to be the latter rather than the former? Critically discuss.
8. "How developing economies ensure that productivity either begins or continues to rise is one of the biggest challenges these economies face." Critically discuss the nature of this challenge and how it might be met using at least two Asian, African and/or Middle Eastern economies as examples.
9. "The importance of emerging nations in the world economy, outside of the contemporary triad of Western Europe, The United States and Japan, is growing and will continue to grow. The spectacular increase in the productivity of the Chinese economy during the last three to four decades is a harbinger of what is to come in other emerging nations." Discuss. What opportunities and problems does this pose for the global economy? Discuss.
10. "Current non-innovation-based Asian economies such as China, India etc. must become innovation-based economies to fully close the income gap with the rich economies. This final step is a critical but difficult one." Discuss.
11. "High productivity is beneficial, not because it helps a country compete with other countries, but because it lets a country produce and therefore consume more. Period." Explain and discuss using at least two Asian economies as examples.
12. Explain and discuss what, in your view, are the lessons for competitiveness that we in North America can learn from the Asian economies.
13. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of competitiveness in the dominant economics of Asia (that is, China, Japan, India etc.) and the opportunities and threats that the competiveness of these economies pose for the less developed economies of the world elsewhere in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
14. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of competitiveness in the emerging economies of Asia (e.g. China, India etc.) and the opportunities and threats that the emergence of competitiveness in these economics pose for the dominant rich nations in the world such as those in North America and Europe.