ABSTRACT
The last fifty years or so have witnessed a remarkable pace of economic growth and structural change amongst countries that were previously seen as poor and under-developed. The original four newly industrialised economies (NIEs) – Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan – grew rapidly from the 1960s and are now perceived as high-income, developed economies. Their economic success was followed in the 1980s by the second-tier NIEs – Thailand, Malaysia and to a lesser extent Indonesia – and since the 1990s by China and Vietnam. These are very different countries but they share a location in East Asia and in all instances manufacturing industry and in particular manufactured exports both within the region and to the rest of the world played a critical role in their rapid growth. The story of their development over this period has been told many times and their success has been cited in support of various theories of development. This chapter focuses on the role of the state in terms of industrial policy, since there is a strong case that part of the economic success of at least some of these economies was due to active state intervention to change the structure of production and to boost manufactured exports.
