Taiwan's economic development

Taiwan's economic development experience has been called a "miracle": a transformation from the civil war-ravaged island economy of a government-in-exile in 1949 - to the 20th largest economy in the world less than five decades later. Along the way Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, has actually descended on the diplomatic scale; in 1949 it was the United Nations-recognized "official" government of the entire Chinese people, but since 1971, when the People's Republic of China in Beijing was voted into the U.N., Taiwan has been a diplomatic nonentity to the majority of world governments. The island's miracle, then, is two-fold: growth from the wreckage of physical disaster, prosperity from the ashes of diplomatic failure.

Miracles, in the real world, have tangible causes. Taiwan's double-rebound is the result of developments and adaptations that enabled its economy to overcome what should have been debilitating adversities. It is the contention of this paper that foreign trade is the key to Taiwan's success: there is a direct relationship between Taiwan's economic development and its emergence as the 13th largest trading nation in the world - with a surplus of US$10 billion*. To support this contention, this essay will examine closely the role foreign trade plays in Taiwan's economy. There will be three general areas of focus. In the first section, attention will be given to an overview of Taiwan's economic experience, with a general concentration upon dev

Related Essays

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACY IN S .... Korea's long heritage of authoritarianism and the economic storm clouds .... Barrett, RE & Chin, S. (1987 .... regimes and development strategies: South Korea and Taiwan. .... (5696 23 )

Economic Integration: The US and East Asia .... in the United States (not to mention the amount of military aid the US provided to Taiwan, South Korea .... Yusuf, S. (2002). .... ASEAN Economic Bulletin, 19(1), 6-26. (2176 9 )

East Asian Development .... It focused on rapid economic growth and development, while Taiwan approached .... similarities and differences in the experience of Taiwan, Japan, and .... Chan, S. (1993 .... (1778 7 )

Economic Development and Democratization .... Asian countries, such as South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and .... development, economic growth, or positive economic situations, and .... Ichimura, S. and Morley, JW (1993 .... (1791 7 )

TAIWAN This research paper summarizes the history .... Such a conflict would set back economic progress throughout the region, but it is a risk to be .... Rigger, S. (1999, September .... Taiwan: Finding opportunity in crisis .... (3946 16 )

on, steel and, especially, banking. In the 1980s the Taiwanese government began loosening its hold on these sectors, generally on the order of creating partnerships with the private sector. At present the government has reduced its holdings to slightly less than one-third participation. As the island became less self-oriented, domestically-originated private sector exports took on an increasingly important role in Taiwan's economy. Fiscal year 1994 figures showed exports to account for 44.5% of GNP. That figure is probably low, for there were major shifts in the previous five years to mainland manufacturing of products controlled by Taiwan firms, the profits of which did not necessarily flow back into the island's banks directly, even while their Taiwan-based home companies benefited. Taiwan has shifted its export focus recently. Previously it had concentrated on being the labor-intensive manufacturer of inexpensive consumer goods; the past decade has seen a shift to becoming the sophisticated engine of high-tech manufacturing and sales. Taiwan's manufacturers have figured out precisely where they can prosper in the value chain of the global info-tech industry. With an average annual income per capita now topping $

Category: Economics - T