What Can Africa Learn from Taiwan? Political Economy, Industrial Policy, and Adjustment

Are there lessons Africa can learn from Taiwan and the other East Asian newly industrialising countries (NICs)? Evaluating the relevance of their experience is fraught with difficulties inherent in making comparisons across regions, during different periods of time, with different preconditions. Clearly, developments in Africa have to be based on local institutions, values, and resources. Yet Taiwan's successful combination of industrialisation and growth with equity reflects goals that are important for African policy-makes. The country's G.N.P. per capita increased from $143 in 1953 to $7,284 in 1990. Even during the 1980s, its economy grew at an average annual rate of 8·2 per cent as against only 0·5 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa for the period 1980–7. Taiwan's sustained growth has been widely shared by all income groups, with the top fifth of households only receiving 4·5 times as much as the bottom fifth. By way of contrast, in Côte d'Ivoire (1986–7) and in Botswana (1985–6), the share of the top 20 per cent was respectively almost ii and 24 times that of the bottom 20 per cent.