From shrugging off their Third World identities to flipping ‘economic backwardness’ on its head; four Asian nations achieved the unthinkable during the final decades of the 20th century. Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore rose to ‘developed nation’ status in just 30 years. This feat hasn’t been replicated in the same fashion in other developing economies since and has bestowed upon each ‘Tiger’ a unique identity.

Rightly named, these fierce nations have aggressively achieved high growth rates by getting the ba-sics right. Prior to their respective climbs, Hong Kong was driven largely by fishermen and farmers, South Korea went from gaining independence from a brutal Japanese rule to fighting the Korean War, Taiwan bore remnants of Japanese attempts at colonisation and Singapore crawled in its early days due to having few resources to claim its own.

Facing such limitations, how did these Tigers on the prowl for economic growth pull it off?

Let’s a take quick look.

Hong Kong

The most consistently laissez-faire of the Tigers, Hong Kong’s economy started growing fast after it moved away from manufacturing and focussed more on services. Today, it has become a financial centre for its region as well as a major industrial force. This has been possible due to the state pushing development forward even when the market might have been content to remain stagnant. In Hong Kong’s case, it was a strong central state that created a long-term development plan and implemented it through a series of policies. The region, now a major corporate and banking centre as well as a con-duit for China’s burgeoning exports, is known for its deep-water port which is one of the world’s bus-iest.

South Korea

With a clear goal in mind, the peninsular state implemented a number of effective legislative and pol-icy tools. South Korea’s progression through various phases of development was possible due to ag-gressive reinvestment in infrastructure, establishment of state-owned industries and the communica-tion of long –term economic plans to the world. Cut to the present and the country is known world-wide for its industrialisation and technological advancements.

Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore rose to ‘developed nation’ status in just 30 years. This feat hasn’t been replicated in the same fashion in other developing economies since and has bestowed upon each ‘Tiger’ a unique identity.

Taiwan

Even after heavier industries were developed, Taiwan’s light industry played a key role in the econo-my all the way into the 1980s. The latter’s unexpected lack of decline could perhaps be attributable to small and mid-sized industries. But soon enough, Taiwan felt its competitive advantage in labour-intensive products slipping away. At this juncture, the state decided to upgrade to become more tech-nology and skill-intensive. This led to the development of a skilled-labour population who now have formidable disposable incomes.

Singapore

The success of Singapore can be attributed to a sound economic policy in addition to a stable gov-ernment free of corruption. Singapore’s biggest strength thus far has been its empowered people, who have been able to access a high quality public education system. The level of job opportunities com-plemented its citizens’ level of education. Singapore’s move to the final phase of development took place as the nation transitioned into Southeast Asia’s trading and financial hub.

One common yet staggering detail that all Tiger economies share is the manner they conformed to a state-led development model. Private domestic investment and rapidly growing human capital were the principal drivers of growth in these economies. In agrarian nations agriculture declined in relative importance but experienced improved productivity. Population growth rates declined rapidly. And some of these economies experienced a more educated labour force, in addition to an effective system of public administration. But can these models of development be replicated elsewhere? This is ulti-mately for the will of a nation’s people and leadership to decide. Let’s not forgot that unique pressures were exerted on these states, where in the pursuit of economic development their legitimacy was chal-lenged. The call to harness these challenges for greatness was answered by the Tigers, and the results now roar louder than ever.