HONG KONG/BEIJING ¨C The U.S.-China trade war has reignited the debate over which developing countries in Asia could take over the mantle of the world¡¯s workshop. The front-runners? India and Indonesia.
A report published Tuesday by Bloomberg Economics shows that no one nation is able to reproduce the kind of success China enjoyed in transforming its economy. Instead, a series of so-called mini-Chinas are set to develop, with each trying to leverage advantages but hampered by structural problems such as inadequate infrastructure or political instability.
China¡¯s intricate networks of factories, suppliers, logistics services and transportation infrastructure grew up in a different era, underpinned by money and technology from Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong at a time of scant regard for the environment, workers¡¯ rights or the few government regulations that were enforced. It had a vast, cheap, literate workforce and gained almost unfettered access to global markets for three decades.
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