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reforms and international trade as its
central economic strategy. This was to
become the country’s focus during the
next two decades.
3. The emergence of the commercial
Internet provided the technological
backbone to allow ever more efficient
global supply chains and ever-faster
transfer of information and money
throughout the world. Businesses were
disrupted at almost every level, as
technology and the communications
revolution facilitated truly global
operating models for the first time.
4. The “big bang” of financial
deregulation in the City of London
in October 1986 contributed to
the massive movement of capital
over the next few decades. For the
first time, a truly global financial
system could emerge, abetted by the
communications revolution, reinforcing
and underpinned by the financial
discipline of shareholder value.
Partly through the influence of these
four events and partly as an extension
of the previous two decades’ logic, the
years between 1990 and 2010 were
marked by a plethora of free trade
agreements of one kind or another
(see Exhibit 2). This helped streamline
bureaucracies and spawned greater
overall economic integration. Billions
of potential workers and therefore
consumers became accessible globally.
Over a short time, these developments
brought about a significant change
in how the three drivers all behaved.
Previously, international trade had been
dominated by countries with relatively
equivalent wage rates, legal structures,
and technological development. Now,
the international trade system was
connected to countries with massive
populations, low wage rates, immature
capital markets, and nascent market-
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