The Quality of Life in Rural Asia presents three central objectives in the light of rural Asia's 30-year population increase. They are to review trends and patterns in the quality of life, identify and analyse options for private and public policies and programmes to improve the quality of life, and to assess future prospects for the quality of life in the light of major influences such as globalization, privatization, and technological change. Such influences have the potential to reshape fundamentally the structure and performance of all national economies in Asia.