Four Asian Tigers

Four Asian Tigers
A map showing the Four Asian Tigers Hong Kong South Korea Singapore Republic of China
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	亞洲四小龍
Simplified Chinese	亚洲四小龙
Literal meaning	Asia's Four Little Dragons
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yǎzhōu sì xiǎo lóng Yue: Cantonese Jyutping aa3 zau1 sei3 siu2 long4
Korean name
Hangul	아시아의 네 마리 호랑이
Literal meaning	Asia's four tigers
Transcriptions Revised Romanization asiaui ne mari horangi

Skyline of Central Hong Kong's financial centre (viewed from Victoria Peak, Hong Kong)

File:Gangnam1.jpg

The Central Business District of Seoul, South Korea.

The dusk skyline of Singapore's town area before dusk.

File:Taipei night view from Xiangshan.jpg

The skyline of Taipei, Taiwan's capital city and financial center.

The term Four Asian Tigers or Asian Tigers refers to the highly industrialized economies of Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. These regions were noted for maintaining exceptionally high growth rates and rapid industrialization between the early 1960s and 1990s. In the 21st century, all four tigers became advanced economies and high-income economies. These regions are still the world's fastest growing developed economies, but attention has increasingly shifted to other Asian economies which are now experiencing faster economic transformation.

All four Asian Tigers have a highly educated and skilled workforce and have specialized in areas where they had a competitive advantage. For example, Hong Kong and Singapore became world leading international financial centres, while South Korea and Taiwan became world leaders in information technology. Their economic success stories became known as the Miracle on the Han River and Taiwan Miracle and role models for many developing countries.

South Korea, the largest of the Four Asian Tigers, became the only Tiger to become a High-income OECD member, join the G-20 major economies, and be listed among the Next Eleven countries, while emerging as the world's largest shipbuilder, the world's fifth largest carmaker, and creating major global multinationals such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai-Kia.

Role of traditional philosophies

Economic success in Japan, followed by the Four Asian Tigers, has been attributed to the existence of harmonious labor-management relations (cf. W. Dean Kinzley, Industrial Harmony in Modern Japan: The Invention of a Tradition, Routledge, London & New York, 1991). “Industrial Harmony” is this unique “culture of harmony” that was consciously invented and developed over the last century in Japan. A semi-bureaucratic organization called the “Kyochokai” (The Co-operation and Harmony Society) was established in 1919 to meet the needs of an emerging industrial society. The Kyochokai took the lead in trying to define the values which would be suitable for a new Japanese-style industrial society, at the time of great social troubles in industrial Europe. The resulting "invented" tradition has played an important role in the evolution and character of Japanese economic values and behavior of social peace for economic development.

Japanese experience appears to challenge unilinear theories of modernization, and to suggest that Japan’s uniqueness lies in the creation of its own kind of modernity, sharply divergent from that to be found in Western countries, and based paradoxically upon a reaffirmation of ancient Confucian values and native Japanese traditions of harmony, self-sacrifice and non-individualistic group striving in pursuit of a common cause. Japan’s emphasis on long-term growth, scrupulous market evaluation, and process engineering are all well regarded as important components of its economic development.

This is the foundation ("Grund" as it used to be) of "Asian political economy". Abandoning import substitution, the model advocated in the developing world following the two world wars, the Four Asian Tigers pursued an export-driven model of economic development with the exportation of goods to highly-industrialized nations. Domestic consumption was discouraged through government policies such as high tariffs. The Four Asian Tigers singled out education as a means of improving productivity; these territories focused on improving the education system at all levels; heavy emphasis was placed on ensuring that all children attended elementary education and compulsory high school education. Money was also spent on improving the college and university system.

Since the Four Asian Tigers were relatively poor during the 1960s, these nations had an abundance of cheap labor. Coupled with educational reform, they were able to leverage this combination into a cheap, yet productive workforce. The Four Asian Tigers committed to egalitarianism in the form of land reform, to promote property rights and to ensure that agricultural workers would not become disgruntled. Also, policies of agricultural subsidies and tariffs on agricultural products were implemented as well.

These places had strong industrial economies which set them apart from all other places in Asia.

Criticism of the export-driven trade model

The Four Asian Tigers were strongly affected by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, which impacted each Tiger to varying degrees. While Taiwan was not as strongly affected, South Korea experienced a major economic bust. However, following significant economic reforms, South Korea paid off its International Monetary Fund (IMF) debts within three years and resumed its role as the world's fastest growing economy, rising to join the top ten economies in the world by 2007. This achievement is often called the Second Miracle on the Han River. Taiwan, on the other hand, stayed as the 16th largest economy in the world. Because of the focus on export-driven growth, many of the Tigers became caught up in a game of currency devaluation. The current criticism of the Four Asian Tigers is that these economies focus exclusively on export-demand, at the cost of import-demand. Thus, these economies are heavily reliant on the economic health of their targeted export nations. In addition, these nations have met difficulties after they lost their initial competitive edge, cheap productive labour. China, India and much of Southeast Asia have now emerged as fast-growing economies based on cheap labour, largely replacing the Tigers.

Some economies were becoming overheated, stock prices were overvalued, property prices were sky-high and investors were jittery and nervous. Because of the structural weaknesses in the regulatory framework, once capital flight began, the stock market nosedived and the major Asian currencies depreciated significantly. This caused social unrest, political instability, regime change and financial bailing out by the IMF. This also gave impetus to some Asian governments to impose capital controls to restrict currency outflows and maintain monetary and financial stability. Taiwan created legislation requiring all outgoing capital transfers to be declared. However, there were no direct restrictions.

Since the crisis, most of the Tiger economies have become financially stable with resilient institutions and companies and regulatory frameworks in place to prevent another crisis. This has also shown many Asian governments that the easy and predictable prosperity of export-led growth and cheap labour costs will not last forever. To better compete with the emerging manufacturing giants like China they will have to create new industries, move up the value-add chain and create stronger service sectors in their economies.

Economic indicators

Per Capita GDP in 1990 dollars	1960	1975	1990	2005
South Korea	$1,226	$3,162	$8,704	$17,526
Taiwan	$1,492	$3,958	$9,886	$19,018
Hong Kong	$3,134	$6,991	$17,541	$27,771
Singapore	$2,310	$6,430	$14,220	$24,610

See also

• Asian Century
• Chinese Century
• Sinosphere
• Gulf Tiger
• Tatra Tiger
• Baltic Tiger
• Celtic Tiger
• Nordic Tiger
• Anatolian Tigers
• Taiwan Miracle
• Japanese post-war economic miracle
• Greek economic miracle
• Spanish miracle
• Miracle of Chile

External links

• BBC report on the Asian Tigers in the aftermath of the 1997 Financial Crisis (includes map of the Asian Tigers)
• ASEAN tigers
• The Elephant at the Gate in China Economic Review