Читать книгу Sociology - Anthony Giddens - Страница 176

Some countries within the broad category of developing countries have embarked successfully on a rapid process of industrialization, which suggests that a country’s position within the development ranking can be changed. These countries have been described as newly industrializing countries (NICs), or newly industrializing economies (NIEs), and today they include Brazil, India, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Indonesia (World Population Review 2020). These follow on from the earlier examples of four so-called Asian tigers (or dragons) of Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, which achieved annual rates of economic growth several times those of the Western industrial economies between the 1960s and the late 1990s (Sarel 1996).

The East Asian NICs have shown sustained levels of economic prosperity and are investing abroad as well as promoting growth at home. South Korea’s shipbuilding and electronics industries are among the world’s leaders, Singapore is becoming the major financial and commercial centre of South-East Asia, and Taiwan is an important presence in the manufacturing and electronics industries. Some economists argue that the reclassification of some previously poorer countries, and especially the rapid development of Brazil, Russia, India and China (the ‘BRIC’ countries), may even signal an emergent shift in the pattern of global power in favour of the developing world (O’Neill 2013). However, it is probably too early to draw this conclusion with much confidence.

Nonetheless, NICs have achieved something truly remarkable, transforming their economies over just three or four decades and moving from the status of low-income or developing to high-income, developed countries. And, even though the 2008 financial crisis and recession did lead to economic contraction, the early NICs weathered the recession and recovered more quickly than most longer-established developed economies. Singapore and Taiwan, for example, saw remarkable rises in GDP in 2010 of 14.5 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively (CIA 2012). What the NICs demonstrate is that sustained economic and social development is possible, though we should not expect all developing countries to follow the same path. The very different starting points and situations of developing countries mean that the NIC experience is unlikely to be repeated across developing countries in Africa.