Technology and industrial development in the Asian Nies: past performance and future prospects

Abstract

The Asian newly industrializing economies (NIEs) -- Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore -- have been unsurpassed in economic growth over the last few decades. By now, sufficient research has been done into the 'causes' of their success to instill caution in all but the most intrepid systematizers against facile generalisations. Few today would attempt to defend the proposition that unfettered market forces lie at the heart of the East Asian success story. While a growing literature (cf. Wade 1990) points to the importance of the state in 'governing the market', state intervention as such is not a differentiating characteristic of the Asian NIEs.