Socio-Economic Development Assignment PDF

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“The 21st Century will be an Asian Century”

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Contents
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 4
2. The overview and importance of Asia in 21st Century............................................................... 4
3. Macroeconomic outlook of Asia ................................................................................................... 5
3.1 Socio-Economic Development ....................................................................................................... 5
3.2 Industrial and Energetic Development............................................................................................ 6
3.3 Digital Development ....................................................................................................................... 6
4. Challenges and risks in the region ............................................................................................... 7
5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 9
6. References .................................................................................................................................... 10

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1. Introduction
Many researchers, economists, scholars and heads of international organistaions argue that the
21st century will be “The Asian Century” presenting splendid achievement of Asia as evidence.
What really is “The Asian Century”? With the past success in the region from 1950s to 2000s,
the experts believe that by 2050, Asia could make up approximately half of global output which
means Asia could become the world’s largest group of consumers, producers and investors in
global goods, services and technology markets. According to UN data in 2018, population of
Asia is more than half the world’s population. There are already six cities from Asia (Tokyo,
Delhi, Shanghai, Dhaka, Mumbai and Beijing) are placed in the top most populous cities in the
world. This following write up has used a pragmatic definition of Asia (Central Asia, East Asia
and South Asia); this definition has proven useful in considering Asia’s long-term economic
prospects.
2. The overview and importance of Asia in 21st Century
Following the end of World War 2 and other major wars such as Korean & Vietnam War,
developing Asia became a prosperous, global manufacturing hubs was the most important
economic development achievement in the late 20th Century. The post war industrialization of
Japan in the 1950s was major turning point of transformation. This was followed by the Four
Asian tigers, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan in 1960s and 1970s with the
rapid industrialization and maintained exceptionally higher growth rates in the region.
However, it is the transformation China and India in 1980s and 1990s respectively made a huge
impact in the region. With both China and India opening up the market, they began to attract
foreign direct investments (FDI) into the country. This made the world to view China as the
factory of the world while India as the back office of the world.