Before the turn of the century, Henry Kissinger visualized that the 21st Century would be Asia’s Century – just as the 20th was dominated by America and the 19th by Europe following the Industrial Revolution and arrival of machines. Situations conspired to make Asia big, a geographic sphere of high activity and nations of thriving economies. The Asean + 3, dominated by China, Japan and South Korea, has for the past decades acted as the production line for items of western consumption. Now, with perceptible affluence among large sections of the population, this geographic region is also seen as the world’s largest market principally for consumer goods; and more importantly for electronic gadgets. For most in the Asean + 3 region, it’s no more a hand-to-mouth existence. In recent years, the region accounted for 28 per cent of the global final demand – against the US demand at 26 per cent.
Some two decades ago, it is said that a third of Asean + 3’s exports of finished products headed for the US; of late, it fell to 20 per cent. Intra-regional demand rose to 30 per cent. China obviously led this change, but individual nations in the grouping also contributed substantially to this. Asian economies like South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong earned the sobriquet of Tiger Economies during the 1960s-90s span. They were joined ably by the Tiger Club of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The economies of South Korea, Japan, Taiwan etc gained through hi-tech manufacturing-based growth. They learned from each other– starting with Japan, which rose like a phoenix after the disastrous WW-II. China not only produces hugely but has also emerged as a large consumer market. It grew both ways. In global automobile sales, China is the largest market – forming more than the combined share of the EU and the US. China boasts of having a fifth of the world’s smartphone users – some four times the US share. Both in production and market supply chains, China overtook Japan to the top slot. The Chinese products are sold to the largest extent in nations in the East or South East Asia. At the same time, a third of Asean +3’s manufactured electronic components reach Chinese households as finished products. Together, they’re on a roll.
The question is, where did India figure in this scheme of things. We hold a bulging consumer base, fed largely by industrially active nations. India holds less than six per cent of Asia’s industrial exports – and its manufacturing output is just around 10 per cent. India trails behind Vietnam and Malaysia in overall competitiveness; and India, holding the world’s largest population, ranks the 6th among Asian economies as per the Asia Manufacturing Index 2026. The villain of the piece here is the system – clogged by bureaucratic red tape, corruption and incompetent leadership. When the age of Economic Liberalization came in the early 1990s, a promise was to do away with the licence raj. Nothing of the sort happened. Rather, the scenario has progressively turned from bad to worse. It’s simply difficult for an entrepreneur here to put his best foot forward. The system conspires to kill his spirit. And that’s where India is today!
