The results reveal that combining both teacher-centered and student-centered teaching

methods in .

GULU UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND HUMANITIES

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

COURSE UNIT: Transformation of Asia from the earliest period, to the present.

COURSE CODE: 3204

STUDENT’S NAME: AGUTI GRACE

REG: No. 17/U/1452/GAKS/PS

YEAR OF STUDY: THREE.

SEMESTER: 2

LECTURER’S NAME: Mr. EGIRI ISA.

TASK: INDIVIDUAL.

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Qn. What lessons can African countries learn from Asian Tigers?

The Asian tigers are also called or known as Asian Dragons. They are the countries which make
up the four Asian Tigers. These are; Hongkong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. This group
consisted of four to five East Asian countries that joined the rich western countries in a priod less
than 50 years after “miraculous” growth. These counties’ real per capita gross domestic product
(GDP) grew from 1960-1995.

The four Asian tigers share the common characteristics like a sharp focus on export, many elites
high rate of savings among the population, hence Krasilschchikov (2019) says that these tigers
developed due to the influence from neighboring powers whom they were not in good terms
with.

The first tiger is Singapore which was once part of Malaysia. It got her independence in 1965.
Before and shortly after independence, it was a poor country. Its people faced high levels of
poverty and unemployment, illiteracy and per capita gross domestic product was USD516.
Hence to solve this, reforms were done on education, industrialization to mention hence
Singapore managed to be among the top most rich countries in Asia with the highest gross
domestic product (GDP) of all the four Asian tigers(Rostow’s, 2018).

Hongkong, (ibid). was a number one or the first Asian tigers to develop rapidly because it had
tax incentives which were favorable to the country and also had cheap labor at the beginning.
Thus by 1961-1997, the gross domestic product of Hongkong grew 180 times making it among
the richest countries in Asia.

African countries should learn from the Asian tigers the strategy on housing. Asian tigers like
Singapore who achieved its objectives of giving low cost houses to the majority Singapore’s for
instance the government intervention took a two prolonged approach involving construction,
provision of finished units to suppliers of land. South Korea also provided subsidies to low
income earners yet Taiwan provided subsidies for low interest loans given through a centralized
government-run housing fund which was meant for home purchasers. (Mascelluti, 2015)

The third economic Asian tiger, is Taiwan. Taiwan is said to have developed as a result of its
being close to china. China is full of high speed trains, strong education system, thus it benefits

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much from china since she borrowed the idea on the use of these trains, hence gross domestic
product rose from USD 140 to USD 22,409 which remained miraculous. Ibid.

The last one is South Korea. This country was so much into agriculture but it changed to
electronics like it was known for making machines like robots, computers hence her gross
domestic product was able to rise to 10% thus now respected as an Asian tiger producing leading
technologies and products like today it is known for producing; Samsung, Hyundai are from
South Korea(World Bank 2017)

Sorin 2019 argued that there are vital lessons related to economic growth that African countries
can learn from the valuable experience of these Asian tigers as explained below.

Asian Tigers governments set up an economic development board with the motive of making
foreign direct investment attractive. An example is Singapore where foreign direct investment
increased so first that by 2001, foreign companies were already up to 75% of manufactured
output and about 85% of manufactured export. The same case applied to South Korea, she
created an environment that attracted large (TNCs) transitional companies, such as Sony from
Japan and encouraged foreign direct investments from the United States. Thus African counties
can also learn to encourage foreign investors to come and invest in Africa so as to develop it.

According to Thurbon and Weiss (2006), the Asian tigers did much on land reforms, with the
aim of improving agricultural extension services, good infrastructures and heavy investments in
rural areas. The South Korea and Taiwan in particular invested much on land reforms to ensure
that more vacant land was put under use like cultivation hence irrigation was also invested and
either ancillary rural infrastructure due to that . They adopted high yield seeds and crops plus the
use of fertilizers and modern agricultural equipment and machinery making low taxation on
agriculture so as to develop agriculture thus African countries can learn that land reform is vital
in the development of any country.

According to Ayieko, the Asian tigers created flexible laws on labor, taxation and environment
whose major effect was to increase industrial operations and increase output. This later increased
goods for local and foreign markets thus helped countries like Taiwan with smaller domestic
markets sought free market access for their manufactured goods abroad hence African countries
learn to create flexible laws which will help them expand industrial operations and to realize big
output to attract local and foreign markets hence development will be realized.

According to Leiden (2013) he argued that the Africans can learn a lesson from Asian tigers of
adopting a system of liberating the economy for with respect to agriculture. Example, the south-
east Asian governments gave subsidies to those who purchased crops when their prices fell
below the equilibrium level, the governments also gave fertilizers and credit promotions thus
enabling them control imports and exports of by restricting export and imports in food items. The
farmers were given freedom (liberty) to sell their foodstuff to any party as long as it was to
develop Asia thus they could buy inputs such as fertilizers on the open market, although in the

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olden days of green revolution in java land settlement scheme in Malaysia. The state had put a
few restrictions on petty farmers and small farmers.

The Asian tigers also used a strategy of engaging youth in the development of their countries.
(Ibid). the young or youth were thought to be energetic to do industrial work and seen as a
powerful force for economic development in East Asia , harnessing the demographic dividend
transformed the economy within a very short time leading to a 6% annual average growth in
per-capita income between 1965 and 1995hence the argument is that if African countries can
also engage the youth in their transitional stage to development not like now where there is high
level of unemployment among the youth especially in Uganda meaning the various countries can
develop hence high standard of living.

In terms of health, (ibid), Asian countries like Hongkong adopted a tax financed system. South
Korea, Singapore and Taiwan adopted a privately financed system they gave their citizens room
for preventive, promotive and rehabilitative health care services at a fair price.

The Asian tigers adopted a policy of exchange rates policy. (Ibid). These favored especially the
exporters. Export incentives and selective tariff protection. They also gave loans to consumers so
as to provide cheaper financing to their industries for export which industries are as a result of
the natural resources which they had. Thus Africans should learn on how to improve the terms of
trade with regards to African exports. Since currently Africans cannot utilize its resources to turn
them into finished goods, then Africa should first improve her terms of trade when it comes to
export hence their countries too shall develop rapidly.

The Asian tigers embraced globalization. A case in point is Singapore which used multi-
nationals to educate its citizens who were unskilled in information technology, pharmaceuticals
and electronics. These made them exports because by 1990s they had started engaging in water
fabrication, logistics, biotech research, pharmaceuticals from merely exporting textiles, garments
and basic electronics thus it would be better if African countries too, start increasing on their
export of tertiary products and not only natural resources.(ibid.)

Under industrialization, the tigers changed their economy from reliance on agriculture to
industrialization or industrial innovation. Hence many economists have attributed South Korea’s
structural transformation to policy reforms that encourage international trade and innovation.
Singapore was also able to succeed in phenomenal economic growth despite it having few
territories and natural resources.

Singapore also teaches African countries to learn her strategy of benefiting from the
development left behind by the colonial masters like roads, schools only for development.
Singapore’s economic development was as a result of its post colonial rulers. They used what the
British left in Singapore to develop their societies like infrastructures were left thus Singapore
was able to transform her economy from extreme poverty to the cutting edge of modernity with
its focus currently on developing society. Thus African countries should also emulate.

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Culturally, the Confucius culture greatly shaped the mindset of the tigers. This culture was
characterized as a system of social and ethical philosophy built on an ancient religious
foundation to establish the social values of all people, institutions and transcendent ideas of
Chinese society which encouraged respect and hard work amongst the Asians specifically in
Singapore and Taiwan. Hence if we as Africans can instill this kind of ethical and moral
behavior, it can lead to productivity in our people, then it will go a long way towards our multi-
faceted development as a continent. (Mascelluti, 2015).

Asian tigers succeeded through key policies imposed by governments such as policies with deep
focus on exports. (Ibid). They focused on export-oriented industrial development to richer
countries with much motivation on development of human capital in that their citizens should
develop specialized skills in order to improve productivity which policy helped in filling in the
labor gaps in certain sectors thus they reduced on a number of jobs taken by foreigners in other
countries . Africans should also emulate this to reduce profit repatriation which is hindering their
development.

According to the human development resource of 2006, they argued that Asian tigers
experienced development in that they encouraged savings and investment including equitable
resource utilization with attributes of equal distribution of assets, land reforms, liberalization of
agricultural markets without interference from politicians. (Joye, 2008).

Through the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998, it facilitated reforms in the financial sector. A
case in point is Malaysia which adopted a long term sector reforms such as developing a
financial sector blueprint. This reform was to bring success because it was also learning from the
previous crisis and also catering for emerging needs in each decade. Still on this reform,
Malaysia amended the central bank of Malaysia Act to grant the central bank the legal authority
to highly promote financial inclusion, which is suggested as a reason why Malaysia today has
one of the biggest financial inclusion rates among middle- income nations with 92% as of 2015.
Hence African countries like Uganda, south Africa, Tanzania, Algeria among others should think
of sector reforms to also develop their financial sectors .(Rao &Mehta 2009).

In conclusion, though there is a great cultural and environmental difference between African
countries and the Asian Tigers, many lessons should be emulated by the Africans towards the
development of their countries following strategies used by the Asian tigers as explained above.

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References:

1. Sorin-George Toma 2019 Learning from the Asian Tigers’ Lessons in Economic Growth.

‘Constantine Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics’

2. Krasilshchikov, V(2010). The East Asian Tigers’folowing Russia and Latin America? .
Market Forces.

3. Rostows, S.O.G.(2018), What is Modernization?.

4. Ayiko, B, (2018), ‘Lessons we can learn from the Asian Tigers for the big four agenda’

Last Accessed on 21st November 2020

5. Rao N. & Mehta, D. (2009). The gradual and the gateway resurgence of the Asian tigers.
6. Unite Nations Development Program. Human Development Report. Beyond Scars City.
Power, Poverty and the Global water crisis, New York. Palagrave Macmillan 2006.
7. Mascellti, E,(2015). The Extraordinary Growth of the Four Asian Tigers