UPSCpedia: Economedia: Newly industrialized country

• The category of newly industrialized country (NIC) is a socioeconomic classification applied to several countries around the world by political scientists and economists.
• NICs are countries whose economies have not yet reached First World status but have, in a macroeconomic sense, outpaced their developing counterparts.
• In many NICs, social upheaval can occur as primarily rural, or agricultural, populations migrate to the cities, where the growth of manufacturing concerns and factories can draw many thousands of laborers.
• NICs usually share some other common features, including:
  • Increased social freedoms and civil rights.
  • Strong political leaders.
  • A switch from agricultural to industrial economies, especially in the manufacturing sector.
  • An increasingly open-market economy, allowing free trade with other nations in the world.
  • Large national corporations operating in several continents.
  • Strong capital investment from foreign countries.
  • Lowered poverty rates.
• The term began to be used circa 1970 when the Four Asian Tigers of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan rose to global prominence as NICs in the 1970s and 1980s, with exceptionally fast industrial growth. All four economies are classified as High-income economies by the World Bank and Advanced economies by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
• South Korea has an outstanding performance in such group. It is the only among the Asian Tigers that is an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member.
• According to The Economist's Democracy Index, a non peer reviewed scale that measures the degree of democracy — as defined by the presence and fairness of elections in determining the country's regime, government transparency, civil liberties, and popular political participation — in different world countries, South Korea is, along with Japan, the only "full democracy" in Asia.
• According to Goldman Sachs review of emerging economies, by 2050 the largest economies in the world will be as follows: China, USA, India, Brazil, and Mexico
• Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa meet annually with the G8 countries to discuss financial topics and climate change, due to their economic importance in today's global market and environmental impact, in a group known as G8+5. This group is expected to be expanded to G14 by adding Egypt alongside the five forementioned countries.
• Other NIC's includes as Argentina, Chile, Egypt, Indonesia and Russia, while Turkey, and South Africa are classified as developed countries by the CIA.
• Economic freedom is not always associated with political freedom in nations such as the People's Republic of China, where Internet censorship and human rights violations are common
• The case is diametrically opposite for India. While being a liberal democracy throughout its post-colonial history, India has been widely criticized for its inefficient government and widespread corruption.
• Thus, while in China where political freedoms remain tight, the average Chinese citizen enjoys a higher standard of living than his or her counterpart in India