Why have South-East Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam been so successful in reducing levels of absolute poverty, while in African countries like Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, despite recent economic growth, most people are still almost as poor as they were half a century ago? This book presents a simple, radical explanation for the great divergence in development performance between Asia and Africa: the absence in most parts of Africa, and the presence in Asia, of serious developmental intent on the part of national political leaders.
This book is a rich addition to the existing knowledge on models of development partnership among developing countries. Unlike the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which exclusively focuses on physical infrastructure development with a strong financing component by China, the Asia–Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) envisages a holistic approach toward development partnership based on the spirit of triangular cooperation, demystifying the donor-recipient model of development cooperation. By integrating four distinct pillars of cooperation – connectivity and physical infrastructure, capacity building and skill development, development cooperation projects, and people-to-people and business-to-business partnerships – the book provides a succinct account of how a demand-driven people-centric model of engagement among Asian and African countries could help achieve inclusive and sustainable development without creating any fatal dependence on specific countries or institutions for external funding. In sixteen chapters, the book covers various theoretical, analytical, and policy discussions with respect to the concept and modalities of the growth corridor approach under the free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific; potential opportunities and challenges in economic sectors and fields like agriculture, manufacturing, trade and investment, urbanization, industrialization, human resource development, and the blue economy; social sector priorities including health, education, skill development, disaster management, and women’s participation; and policy issues relating to trade facilitation, the identification of joint projects, modalities and instruments of project execution, and related aspects. The book offers a valuable resource for students and research scholars working in the fields of development economics, development cooperation, international political economy, and international economic relations. It also serves as a handbook for governments and policymakers on issues concerning the suitability of development projects, sources of and innovations in financing, implementation and execution challenges, private sector involvement, and so on.
Why have South-East Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam been so successful in reducing levels of absolute poverty, while in African countries like Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, despite recent economic growth, most people are still almost as poor as they were half a century ago? This book presents a simple, radical explanation for the great divergence in development performance between Asia and Africa: the absence in most parts of Africa, and the presence in Asia, of serious developmental intent on the part of national political leaders.
A comparison of the economies of East and Southeast Asia with those in Sub-Saharan Africa could be suspect, as countries in these two regions are at such vastly different stages of development. Observers often claim that such a comparison is akin to comparing apples and oranges. But in actuality, at the times of their respective independence movements (or at the conclusion of their principal war for the foundation of the current state), the countries in Asia and Africa were at comparable stages of economic development and displayed comparable standards of living indicators. However, in the decades that followed, the vast majority of Sub-Saharan African countries have experienced repeated development failures while many East and Southeast Asian nations have experienced robust economic growth. The differences between the two regions are so extreme that they cannot be explained solely by the different circumstances these countries face with respect to their geography, physical environment, and culture-driven tastes and preferences. What, then, were the primary drivers of this vast divergence, and what lessons can be learned by policymakers and the international development community? Drawing on previous studies, this paper designed an economic growth model with the intention of shedding light on the aforementioned questions. The model involves a time-series least-square regression on a basket of 5 countries from Asia and 6 from Africa, and it charts various economic, political, and demographic variables for the first 20 years postindependence. Its findings indicate that several factors contributed to the divergence of economic performance between Africa and Asia, principally among which were factors related to the two regions respective public sector institutions, population growth, and demographic change.
This comprehensive book focuses on the prevailing conditions in Asia and Africa under various macroeconomic and sectoral themes in order to provide in depth explanations for the divergent development experiences of the two regions. Seeking to go further than the simple comparison of policies, the book carefully examines the institutional context for policy implementation within which growth and development have proceeded in the regions.
This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND license. This book addresses the issue of how a country, which was incorporated into the world economy as a periphery, could make a transition to the emerging state, capable of undertaking the task of economic development and industrialization. It offers historical and contemporary case studies of transition, as well as the international background under which such a transition was successfully made (or delayed), by combining the approaches of economic history and development economics. Its aim is to identify relevant historical contexts, that is, the ‘initial conditions’ and internal and external forces which governed the transition. It also aims to understand what current low-income developing countries require for their transition. Three economic driving forces for the transition are identified. They are: (1) labor-intensive industrialization, which offers ample employment opportunities for labor force; (2) international trade, which facilitates efficient international division of labor; and (3) agricultural development, which improves food security by increasing supply of staple foods. The book presents a bold account of each driver for the transition.
This open access book analyses the development problems of sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) from the eyes of a Korean diplomat with knowledge of the economic growth Korea has experienced in recent decades. The author argues that Africa's development challenges are not due to a lack of resources but a lack of management, presenting an alternative to the traditional view that Africa's problems are caused by a lack of leadership. In exploring an approach based on mind-set and nation-building, rather than unity – which tends to promote individual or party interests rather than the broader country or national interests – the author suggests new solutions for SSA's economic growth, inspired by Korea's successful economic growth model much of which is focused on industrialisation. This book will be of interest to researchers, policymakers, NGOs and governmental bodies in economics, development and politics studying Africa's economic development, and Korea's economic growth model.
This publication considers the different economic experiences of countries in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, in terms of policy, institutional and structural aspects, divergence in economic growth and performance levels, and the extent of their integration into the global economy. Chapters discuss a variety of issues including the dynamics of globalisation, local entrepreneurship, exports, foreign direct investment, management of financial flows, foreign aid, debt and development.
This book illustrates the enduring relevance and vitality of the comparative political economy of development approach promoted among others by a group of social scientists in Oxford in the 1980s and 1990s. Contributors demonstrate the viability of this approach as researchers and academics become more convinced of the inadequacies of orthodox approaches to the understanding of development. Detailed case material obtained from comparative field research in Africa and South Asia informs analyses of exploitation in agriculture; the dynamics of rural poverty; seasonality; the non farm economy; class formation; labour and unfreedom; the gendering of the labour force; small scale production and contract farming; social networks in industrial clusters; stigma and discrimination in the rural and urban economy and its politics. Reasoned policy suggestions are made and an analysis of the comparative political economy of development approach is applied to the situation of Africa and South Asia. Aptly presenting the relation between theory and empirical material in a dynamic and interactive way, the book offers meaningful and powerful explanations of what is happening in the continent of Africa and the sub-continent of South Asia today. It will be of interest to researchers in the fields of development studies, rural sociology, political economy, policy and practice of development and Indian and African studies.
