During the 1990s, a number of "developing" countries became interested in upgrading the technology of their national media industries to acquire Internet, satellite broadcast, and cellular phone capacities, because digital technologies like these offered opportunities for sustainable development. Each of these countries had a divergent understanding of what constituted "national" or, increasingly, "regional" interests. Yet, Western policymakers and global financing institutions aggressively promoted standardized neoliberal policies, including privatization and deregulation of national media industries--the subsequent "opening" of these industries to free market forces. Although little empirical evidence existed to support the benefits of this policy framework, development aid from these Western institutions was often contingent upon the adoption of it. The justification was simply that the application of neoliberal policies to national media industries was understood to be superior to any others. Scholarship in political economy of communication made strides in criticizing the dominance of Western policy frameworks and the effects of neoliberalism on national media industries in the developing world. Within a political economy model, the imperative of the present project is to consider the bi-lateral relationship between the developed and the developing world as one that can also be located within a more regionalized and heterogeneous structure. In the last decade, regional economic alliances have become recognized as a feasible method for developing countries to enter into the global political economy. These alliances are often flexible networks among a dozen or more countries, and the reasons so many join are as varied as their membership. The most common reasons are because they foster: cost-sharing of communication technology acquisition, technology transfer and training programs among nations, financing through regional development banks, as well as policy frameworks that are not as heavily determined by neoliberal macroeconomic prescriptions. Most importantly, they provide a place wherein developing countries can maintain their own "national" identities, but still benefit from a collective force in the global market place. Central to this analysis are Vietnam and its membership in the Association of Southeast Nations, and South Africa in the South African Development Community, both of which in their own way signify the viability of this alternative model.
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