Most governments in Eastern Asia have created a government ministry, agency, or a department to deal with environmental issues.

In the developing countries, the environmental ministries tend to be small.  They also are often poorly funded, because economic resources are needed elsewhere.

Agencies that are supposed to protect the environment in Eastern Asia often are unable to monitor levels of environmental degradation.  They also have difficulty in enforcing regulations, making them considerably less effective.

Environmental regulators usually use command and control as their primary policy instrument.  Through legislation, strategic planning, environmental standards, and regulation, government agencies work towards a cleaner environment.  They seldom use the more advanced economic policy programs, such as tradable pollution permits.

Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) have been used more recently.  EIAs attempt to uncover the major problems facing a region, and guide the country toward creating solutions through laws and regulation.

In order to strengthen the influence of EIAs, governments need to give more control to environmental agencies and better train their environmental experts.  It is also difficult to perform EIAs due to a lack of information.  Unlike in more developed countries that have a history of environmental regulation, great quantities of industrial and environmental information are not always available in developing nations.

Those countries doing little or nothing in the environmental sector often lack the personnel needed for effective environmental regulation.  As a result, the countries are reluctant to solve domestic environmental problems, or to participate in international agreements.