Radical economic transformation has become a populist slogan, but what would it truly involve if implemented? The most successful case of radical economic transformation is found in the East Asian Tiger economies - countries such as South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. After the Second World War, they were even poorer than African countries today, but within a generation they become some of the world's most dynamic economies.
The East Asian Tigers unleashed a manufacturing revolution, which turned small businesses such as South Korea's LG and Taiwan's Acer into global giants. The countries have achieved extraordinary successes in income, education, homeownership and infrastructure. Furthermore, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan implemented successful land reform programs, specifically aimed at boosting entrepreneurship, industrialization and broad-based empowerment.
This book unpacks the radical economic transformations of the East Asian Tiger economies since independence from colonialism after the Second World War. Like many African and developing countries, most of them had been colonized and were later governed by liberation and independence movements. What have these countries done right and what lessons can we learn from them?
