“MADE IN TAIWÁN”: Procesos de industrialización tardía en el este asiático

Abstract

The analysis of asian industrialization experiences from the second half of the 20th century, focusing our interest on the island of Taiwan, is a suggestive platform to renew the analytical efforts on the problem of economic development and industrialization. In East Asia, although the market plays a basic role in the allocation of resources, the State maintains the general orientation of the economic process, controlling and supervising the main variables, with a determined policy of export promotion, in a synergy between the State and market, much more than in reciprocal competition approaches. The remarkable success of these economies originated under the convergence of several factors. The orientation of a "hard" State, capable of overcoming sectoral pressures and of combining free trade, with protectionism, was crucial, adopting a path of development that sought strategic integration to the world market, although not subordinated to the dictates of the countries central capitalists. For this, these economies were actively integrated into the new strategy of industrial relocation to the periphery undertaken by the large multinationals starting in 1970, officiating as apprentices first and promoting endogenous development and innovation afterwards. Taiwan illustrates the parable developed in the region, as a revealing example of the economic dynamism of the Asia-Pacific area: indicating, in the beginning, the origin of products of dubious quality, scattered throughout the world, to its constitution as one of the Asian champions in the production of technological goods with high added value.