Making Megacities in Asia: Comparing National Economic Development Trajectories

This book analyses and compares the development paths of five major cities in East and Southeast Asia since the early 1960s, including Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Manila, Seoul, and Shanghai. In examining these five cases through a carefully crafted conceptual framework, the author excavates an understanding of the dynamics that have enabled Seoul and Shanghai to become highly competitive as major engines of economic growth, while simultaneously accounting for why the other three cities have faced numerous problems in terms of meeting their development goals.

Presenting both quantitative and qualitative data to trace the course of changes between 1960 and 2015, the case studies curate six possible explanations for the different cities' developmental trajectories.

This book will be highly relevant to researchers in international and Asian urban development. There are useful recommendations for Vietnam in the circumstances in which, many serious issues have happened in cities, especially Hanoi and HCMC.