The first of the four papers in this symposium, "The History of Human Resource Development in Taiwan from 1949 to 1999" (Christine M. Kuo, Gary N. McLean) finds that, contrary to the belief of most Taiwanese scholars that HRD (human resource development) in Taiwan is a new field, the roots of HRD in that country originated in the 1950s. It explains three functions and seven patterns of the Taiwanese HRD system. "Expatriate Development for the Asia-Pacific Region: A Comparative Analysis of Expatriates from Five Countries across Three Continents" (AAhad M. Osman-Gani) describes a study of key international HRD issues, specifically relating to training and development of expatriates from five countries representing Singapore, Japan, Korea, Germany, and the United States."Development of a Framework for Emerging Asian MNCs [Multinational Corporations] and a Model for Promising Local Enterprises to Migrate onto the 'MNC Curve': An International HRD Perspective" (Gerald Z. D. Huang) looks at the evolution of the global economy and the impact of changes brought about by technology, communication, and education. It also surveys the different approaches to management development adopted by U.S., European, and Japanese MNCs. It suggests that, if corporations are to survive the global wave, a different trajectory is needed--one that allows organizational flexibility, renewal, global integration, and national responsiveness. "The Framework and Practices of Cross-Cultural Training of Taiwanese Corporations" (Hsinyi Chen, Menling Wu) reports that nearly one-third of the Taiwanese high-technology corporations have cross-cultural training programs, mostly less than 3 days in length, using an information-giving approach. (KC)