ABSTRACT
The NICs’ spectacular growth subsided somewhat over the 1980s. As we have seen, they faced growing competition in simple manufactures and moved on towards the supply of capital-and skill-intensive goods. They were displaced in the growth stakes by the new exporting countries (NECs or second-tier exporters) such as Colombia, Morocco, Thailand and Malaysia. These countries, like Japan and the NICs before them, expanded rapidly by providing cheap labour-intensive manufactures.
