Let's get acquainted with four countries bearing the proud, pompous name "Asian tigers", namely, with a group of countries that in the 1990s moved from a group of developing countries to a group of developed countries as a result of industrialization that was successfully carried out in the previous thirty years. How did they do it? What is the past and present of the four small states that have managed in a few decades to turn from ordinary developing states on the periphery of civilization into formidable predators of the modern economy? We learn this by getting to know each of them individually.
Instruction manual
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South Korea
A small country with a capital in Seoul, with an area of only 100 thousand square kilometers (the size of the Saratov region) and a population of 50 million people. The HDI (Human Development Index) for South Korea is 0.901, that is, it is very high, and its GDP is 1.9 trillion dollars in PPP (14th in the world, Russia has 6th), and 1.4 trillion dollars at face value (11th place in the world, Russia - 12th).
What is the HDI and how do PPP GDP and nominal GDP differ? The HDI (Human Development Index), also known as the HDI (Human Development Index), is an aggregated index based on three indicators - population literacy, life expectancy, and PPP per capita GDP. As for GDP, GDP (gross domestic product) is allocated separately at PPPs (purchasing power parity) and at par. The nominal GDP is calculated in national currency and converted into dollars at the official current exchange rate. When calculating the GDP at PPPs, instead of the official exchange rate, their “real” rate is used, their purchasing power parity, calculated by comparing prices for more than 3.5 thousand goods in national currency and in dollars. In developing countries, PPP GDP may be several times greater than nominal, for example, in Russia, it is more than 3 times greater than nominal GDP. In developed countries, the difference is much smaller. For the USA, PPP GDP is always equal to nominal GDP, for the dollar is their national currency. But we were distracted, back to our … tigers.
Despite the scarcity of natural resources, the "country of morning freshness" has a developed industry - it ranks second in the world after China in terms of shipbuilding, fifth in the world in automobile production, shares fifth place with Russia in steelmaking (smelted from Australian iron ore), is one of the world leaders in the production of electrical engineering, machine tool building, has achieved success in biotechnology, is a space power (yes, South Korea has its own Naro cosmodrome and launches its own nnyh satellites), and almost a third of its electricity is generated by nuclear power plants (NPPs).
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How did the Koreans come to this? Let's start from afar. In 1895, under the Shimonosek treaty between China and Japan, the united Korea was freed from vassal dependence on China.
to become a Japanese colony in 1910. When in 1945, Soviet troops, with the support of American allies, liberated Korean territory, the country was divided along the 38th parallel into two halves controlled by the Soviet and American provisional administrations in order to prepare for the general Korean election in the near future
alas, the Cold War dictated a different course of events, and in June 1950, after the provocation of the troops of the South Korean dictator Lee Seung Man, a bloody Korean War broke out, drawing Chinese and Soviet volunteers into the conflict on the side of the northerners, and US troops and their allies acting on the southerners' side UN Security Council sanctions. The war ended in 1953 and caused enormous damage to the economies of both Koreas. It is worth noting, however, that the South Koreans and their allies accuse North Korea of starting the war, although objective facts (the twofold superiority of the southerners over the northerners in population, the US nuclear monopoly surviving its time, the need for the capitalist bloc to stop the expanding pro-Soviet China) indicate that the capitalist bloc was more interested in starting a war on the Korean peninsula. In 1961, after coming to the Blue House (no need to haha here, this is the residence of the South Korean president in Seoul), dictator Park Jung-hee, father of the "Korean economic miracle" (and not only - Park Geun-hye, who recently lost his impeachment, is the native daughter of Park Chung Hee), the country has embarked on the path of economic reform. With the active participation of the state in the economy, an increase in R&D expenses, attraction of foreign investments, support of allied relations with the USA, export-oriented economy and state support of chaebols, South Korea has achieved impressive success. If anything, chaebol, the type of corporation characteristic of South Korea, has much in common with Japanese zaibatsu. Chaebol is distinguished by its large size, the family nature of the enterprise (all leadership positions belong to the same family clan) and diversified activities (for example, Hyundai, known to you as a machine manufacturer, also has the world's largest shipyard in Ulsan). Lotte, Samsung, KIA, LG, Daewoo and other South Korean companies known to you are chaebols.
However, not everything is as cloudless for South Korea as it might seem. Its relations with its northern neighbor are a hotbed of international tension, and the DPRK’s acquisition of the status of a nuclear power, coupled with the ongoing provocations from the Republic of Korea, only warm the situation. Both countries do not recognize each other, officially considering the other "rebellious territories." South Korea, like any other developed state, is experiencing the problems of an aging population, environmental pollution, and a lack of natural resources.
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Hong Kong
Also, this special administrative region of China, with an area of only 2.5 thousand kilometers (less than half of Moscow) and a population of 7.5 million people, is sometimes called Hong Kong. In 1898, Britain imposed a 99-year lease agreement on China for China, in 1941 it came under Japanese control, but in 1945 returned to tenacious English paws, where it stayed until 1997, when the lease expired. Now Hong Kong as part of the PRC, however, enjoys the broadest autonomy: in fact, the Hong Kong authorities are independent in everything except external relations.
Under British rule, Xiangang was an important trading point used by the British to trade with China. After the end of the civil war in China, refugees and capital flowed from the mainland, which gave impetus to the development of industrialization here. Thanks to low taxes and minimal government intervention in the economy, investments from developed countries flocked here, Western entrepreneurs began to transfer their industrial production here.
As a result, Hong Kong now has a GDP of more than $ 300 billion at face value and more than 400 at PPP, and its HDI is 0.917. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) is the sixth largest in the world by capitalization (and second in Asia, second only to the Tokyo Stock Exchange), Hong Kong has a developed financial sector, is famous for the chemical industry, manufacturing, watches, toys and a number of household goods, as well as the release of electronics, which is The area of its international specialization, has a port that is one of the three largest container ports in the world. Also, Syangang is characterized by a several-fold superiority of foreign trade over GDP, due to the region's intermediary role in trade between China and other countries.
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Taiwan
The Republic of China covers an area of 35 thousand square kilometers (slightly less than the Yaroslavl region), most of which falls on the island of Taiwan, which gave the republic an unofficial name, has a population of 23.5 million people, its capital is Taipei.
The original Chinese island, Taiwan (or Formosa, as the Portuguese called it), in the 17th century managed to stay for several decades under Dutch and Spanish control, and in 1895, under the terms of the already familiar Simonoseki peace treaty between Japan and China, it became part of Japan, where was until 1945 when it was returned to China
.however, immediately after the Second World War ended in China, a civil war interrupted by the Japanese invasion again broke out between the current government, represented by the Kuomintang party led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the rebel movement led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under the leadership of Mao Zedong. The Communists took up, and in 1949 the CCP announced the creation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and the Kuomintang party leadership, having seized a significant part of China’s gold reserves, was forced to take refuge in Taiwan. Probably, the island, like Nepal, Bhutan and the Indian part of the Himalayas, would have expected the fate of Tibet, liberated by the PRC army in 1950, but, unfortunately, the Korean War broke out, forcing the PRC to stop expansion.
Starting from the 1950s under Chiang Kai-shek, and then with his son Jiang Jingguo (who studied for 12 years in the Soviet Union), Taiwan's economy has overcome the path of industrialization thanks to successful agrarian reforms, state protectionist policies, foreign investment, and American defense assistance.
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In the international economy, Taiwan specializes in the production of electronics, in particular PCs, laptops and radios, in the production of plastics and polymers, as well as in textiles. With a PPP GDP of trillion dollars and a nominal GDP of half a trillion, Taiwan's economy is considered to be approximately the twentieth largest in the world.
Politically, the Republic of China is a partially recognized state, which is officially recognized by only two dozen countries. The PRC considers the territory of Taiwan to be its own, however, due to the patronage of the United States over Formosa, it cannot establish actual control over this territory. Nonetheless, political contradictions do not impede the island’s close economic ties with the mainland - for example, Taiwan is China’s largest trading partner.
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Singapore
The Republic of Singapore is a city-state with an area of only 7 hundred square kilometers (even the area of the city of Sevastopol and even more) and a population of more than 5 million people. The leading role in the life of the initially Malay state is played by the “huaqiao” - ethnic Chinese, descendants of immigrants from the Middle Kingdom, playing a role in Southeast Asia similar to the role of Jews in Europe and America. According to various estimates, their share in the population of Singapore is from half to three quarters. The flow of huaqiao to the countries of Southeast Asia especially increased after the end of the civil war in China, which was one of the reasons for the acceleration of their economic growth due to the flow of capital along with newcomers, that is, the civil war in China, as we see, affected fate and this "tiger".
Since the beginning of the 19th century, the “Lion City” (as the name of the state is translated from Sanskrit) was under British control; in 1942, the more than 80, 000th garrison inscribed another shameful page in the history of British weapons, surrendering to the 36, 000th corps of the Japanese army. By 1945, the city was occupied by the Japanese, at the end of the war it was under British rule and even spent two years as part of Malaysia before becoming an independent state in 1965.
Being a strategically important port on the sea route along the Strait of Malacca, Singapore has long been a center of intermediary trade. Thanks to the economic policy pursued by the local dictator Lee Kuan Yew, investments and industrial production flowed into the country, and today Singapore has developed electrical and chemical industries (there is a large oil refining center here), and is also an important financial center due to low tax rates. PPP GDP totals half a trillion dollars, nominal GDP - 300 billion. The HDI is also very high - 0.925.
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Total
Asian tigers have the following common features:
1) favorable economic and geographical position
2) the active attraction of foreign capital for many years, which was facilitated by the low cost of labor
3) during the Cold War, focusing on cooperation with the United States as the most solvent superpower
4) a bet on the development of high-tech production, mainly - on the production of electronics, plastics and polymers
5) a long protectionist policy (except for Hong Kong, recognized as the area with the highest level of economic freedom in the world)
6) a long stay in power of authoritarian regimes that ensured the most effective management of available limited resources
7) the rapid development in recent years of economic ties with China
8) a high rate of gross savings, the possession of solid gold and foreign exchange reserves - for example, the volumes of international reserves of both Taiwan and Xiangang are usually estimated slightly higher than the reserves of the Russian Federation, which, in turn, are slightly higher than the South Korean, and the gold and foreign exchange reserves of Singapore are almost equal to the reserves of Brazil
9) A significant role in the international tourism market, mainly due to business tourism. It stands out with 26.5 million tourists a year (this is more than the annual tourist flow to Greece!) Hong Kong, where some types of gaming business are prohibited on the territory of the rest of China, except Macau (Macau), which helps to attract Chinese tourists here.
- 1. CIA World Factbook
- 2. The World Bank Dat
- 3. Encyclopedia "Around the World"
- 4. History of international relations: In three volumes: Textbook / Ed. Ed. A.V. Torkunov, M.M. Narinsky. - M.: Aspect Press, 2012
- 5. World economy: textbook / ed. A. S. Bulatov. - 2nd ed., Revised. and add. - M.: Economist, 2008 - 860 p.
