Reasons for the uneven economic development in Southeast Asia

Favorable climate and geography are sometimes not a good thing.

Southeast Asia is very rich in products, there are no four seasons, the climate is hot, the rainfall is abundant, and the rivers are dense. Before the European colonizers arrived in Southeast Asia, the indigenous people of Southeast Asia had always lived a leisurely life of starving trees and fruits, and sleeping when they were sleepy.

And Southeast Asia is basically an island country, in ancient times due to inconvenient transportation, they did not fight, the sea is a natural barrier, even if there is a fight, it is a brawl of hundreds of people, the pressure of life is small, people do not have a strong demand and motivation for competition and struggle.

As a result, a culture of contentment and pleasure and easy satisfaction has emerged, in which the pace of life is slow, and of course there is no driving force for rapid change.

In modern times, Southeast Asian countries have discovered a large number of mineral resources, and rich tourism resources, why work hard to make money lying down?

Conditions in East Asia are much worse, with no sowing in the spring, no harvest in the fall, and death of starvation and cold in the winter.

Coupled with the natural disasters and wars that break out from time to time, it can be said that the history of East Asia is a history of wars, and history teaches us to fight with the sky, people, and the earth from an early age.

In addition, although there are many minerals in East Asia, they are not complete and difficult to mine.

It has created a strong sense of competition among the people of East Asia, and only through competition can social and economic development be promoted.

The influence of Confucian culture.

The three East Asian countries of China, South Korea, and Japan are all part of the Confucian cultural circle, including Singapore and Vietnam in Southeast Asia.

Although there are many dross in ancient Confucian culture, there is no lack of essence.

People in the Confucian cultural circle have not started to struggle since kindergarten and compete with their peers.

This kind of struggle is a sense of fear of survival, as if not fighting is a sin, and if you don't struggle, you will be eliminated by society in minutes, and you will feel trampled under the feet of others and looked down upon.

Many times, life is already good, but they are still struggling to die, and they are really fighting for the sake of fighting.

And the most bizarre thing is that this kind of struggle has nothing to do with where you are and material conditions, for example: the rich people in Southeast Asia are basically Chinese, and most of the hardest working people in the United States are East Asians.

It's not that the people of Southeast Asia won't struggle, they struggled very hard, like the four tigers and the four tigers, they developed very fast, but under the influence of Western culture and their own hedonistic culture, they fell into the "trap of developing countries" and couldn't extricate themselves, coupled with the huge damage caused by the Asian financial crisis at the end of the 90s, so that they lost the heart to continue to struggle.

The struggle of Southeast Asian countries is like playing a game, you can fight hard to play well, but you can survive if you don't play well, so that's it!

Although all Confucianism has its own limitations, it is still an excellent civilization at its core, shaping the spirit of hard work, struggle, not believing in ghosts and gods, and fighting the heavens and the earth, and still influencing more than one billion East Asian people.

This is the reason why East Asian countries are more developed than Southeast Asian countries.

Once upon a time, Southeast Asia was so immersed in its own development that it was completely unaware of the complexities of the outside world. After that, it was forcibly implanted by strong Western forces. Southeast Asia's own rule began to fall apart, with invading Western powers not only plundering land and resources, but also affecting the economies of Southeast Asian countries.

On the one hand, some countries have been affected, restricting economic development. Some countries have embraced the culture of the Western powers, but have developed their own economies slightly.

After independence, a series of factors including politics, history, culture, and location were criss-crossed by a series of factors, including internal and external, subjective and objective reasons, and geographical reasons, which affected the overall economic development of Southeast Asia, showing an unbalanced state.

1. Reason 1: Except for Thailand, all other countries have been subjected to varying degrees of colonial rule.

The colonial rule of the West has undoubtedly dealt a blow to all countries except Thailand, and the development of each country after its establishment is also different. This immediately gives the starting point of Thailand a high level. Some countries have been seriously invaded, and Thailand is lucky.

However, its development has been largely constrained by its own reasons, which is in stark contrast to countries such as Singapore and Brunei, which have become developing countries without colonial rule.

2. Reason 2: Some countries have their own political turmoil and serious wars.

Thailand, for example, has a starting point for economic development that is one step ahead of other countries in Southeast Asia. The severity of the war has also caused serious deviations in the development of the economy. Thailand has not become a developed country because of its own civil strife, and Cambodia and Myanmar have turned themselves into backward countries because of their civil strife, which cannot be ignored as a major reason for the economic imbalance in Southeast Asia due to the war.

3. Reason 3: Affected by the financial crisis and financial turmoil.

Beginning in 1997, finance began to roar and tear up its own bubble. By 2001, Southeast Asia was experiencing another major recession. These two economic problems were affected differently by the different responses of each country and all economic aspects.

Professor Hu Xining also believes that the economies of Southeast Asian countries are experiencing a phenomenon of economic cycles [10]. The different impacts of finance on Southeast Asian countries are also one of the reasons for the different economic development of Southeast Asia.

4. Reason 4: Differences in their own resources and environmental conditions.

For example, Laos, without resources and railways, can neither rely on resources to develop itself, nor can it rely on foreign investment to further its economy. Compared to Brunei, it cannot have an advantage in resources; Compared with Singapore, it cannot rely on geographical competition to win. If Laos does not take other paths, not only will its own economic development problems not be solved, but it will also be in a very passive situation.

5. Reason 5: The development model adopted is different.

For example, Thailand has adopted a "dual-track" development model, which is too backward compared with Singapore's economic development mode. After all, the technology used to produce TVs and computers is not on the same level, which also lays the conditions for them not to be on the same level. Science and technology are the conditions for the development of all productive forces, and the different development models adopted by Southeast Asian countries according to their own countries have also caused the economies of various countries to show an imbalance.

6. Reason 6: Some countries in Southeast Asia are not enlightened and self-contained.

A prime example of this is Myanmar, which is ranked by the United Nations as one of the least developed countries, and it is not about domestic resources. Myanmar's resource advantage cannot be said to be abundant, but in the case of self-isolation and arrogance, there is no place for heroes, and it has not contributed much to the development of its own economy.

The 1997 Southeast Asian Financial Crisis Chapter 5 of the Economic Recession in ASEAN Countries and the Causes of the Imbalance in Southeast Asian Economic Development Except for Thailand, all other countries have been subjected to varying degrees of colonial rule.

The regimes are different, the climate is different, the population is numerous, the ethnic groups are complex, the political parties are numerous, the continuity of the ruling is weak, and the relevant active policies cannot be implemented.

Southeast Asia's industrial system is incomplete, especially in brand-building and key R&D areas. Relatively speaking, Vietnam has successfully replicated China's development experience and has invested the most in manufacturing, but it is the country with the greatest hope of building a competitive industrial system.

Southeast Asia is an export-oriented economy, dominated by export processing industries, and heavy industries are less developed. With the take-off of Japan's economy and the transfer of Western industries, Southeast Asia has accepted processing industries on a large scale and accepted Western investment, forming an import-processing-export model.

After the economic crisis in Southeast Asia, Southeast Asian countries began to pay attention to the balanced development of national industries, but this will take a long time to change, not a short period of time. Of course, Southeast Asia is also very developed in agriculture, and it also exports a large number of agricultural products.

Geography of Southeast Asia:

The geographical location of the southeast of Asia has special significance, on the one hand, it is the lowest latitude region in Asia, and it is the equatorial part of Asia; On the other hand, it is a transitional zone between Asia and Australia, which is clearly reflected in the climate and biological world.

The region is also the confluence of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, which gives Southeast Asia a hot and humid climate and lush tropical forests, which is a fundamental difference between the region and other surrounding regions. Southeast Asia can be divided into two major units in terms of tectonic topography, one is the relatively stable Indo-Malay massif, and the other is the new folded mountains with more active crustal changes.

It has two types: equatorial rainy climate and tropical monsoon climate, and the natural vegetation is dominated by tropical rainforest and tropical monsoon forest, which can be divided into two sub-zones.

Viet Nam: A developing country. In 1986, it began to reform and open up.

In 1996, the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam proposed to vigorously promote the country's industrialization and modernization. In 2001, the Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) decided to establish a socialist-oriented market economy system and set three major economic strategic priorities, namely, to develop a variety of economic sectors, give play to the dominant position of the state-owned economy, and establish a supporting management system for the market economy, with industrialization and modernization as the center. From 1990 to 2006, the GDP grew at an average annual rate, the total economic volume continued to expand, the structure of the three industries tended to be coordinated, and the level of opening up to the outside world continued to improve, basically forming a pattern in which the state-owned economy was the leading factor and various economic sectors developed together.

Laos: Mainly agricultural, with a weak industrial base. It is one of the least developed countries in the world.

Cambodia: It is a traditional agricultural country with a weak industrial base. It is one of the least developed countries in the world.

Thailand: Liberal economic policy. It is an export-oriented economy that is more dependent on external markets such as the United States, Japan, and Europe.

Myanmar: Agriculture is the foundation of Myanmar's national economy, and the main crops are rice, wheat, maize, cotton, sugarcane and jute. Myanmar has superior natural conditions and abundant resources.

But the development of industry and agriculture has been slow for many years. In December 1987, it was listed as one of the least developed countries in the world by the United Nations. On March 31, 1989, the State Enterprise Law was promulgated, announcing the implementation of a market economy and gradually opening up to the outside world, allowing foreign investment, farmers can freely operate agricultural products, and private individuals can operate import and export.

Malaysia: It is a relatively open national interest-oriented and newly industrialized market economy. The state has played an important role in guiding economic activity through macroeconomic planning, but its importance has gradually declined. Malaysia has the best economic record in Asia.

Singapore: It is the fourth largest international financial center after London, New York and Hong Kong. Industry is the leading force in Singapore's economic development, and it has grown rapidly to become the world's third largest oil refiner and one of the world's electronics industry hubs.

Indonesia: The direction of industrial development is to strengthen export-oriented manufacturing.

Brunei is a country with a relatively single economic structure, its economy is mainly based on traditional agriculture and coastal fishery, and the overall trend of Brunei's economy is characterized by a high degree of dependence on oil and natural gas.

The Philippines is an export-oriented economy. The tertiary industry plays a prominent role in the national economy, while agriculture and manufacturing also account for a considerable proportion.

Timor-Leste: The economy is in the reconstruction phase.

I think there are too many countries in Southeast Asia, including the island countries of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, as well as Vietnam, Thailand, which border China, and so on.

Southeast Asia's economic development is uneven, and each country has its own reasons.

Economically developed are Singapore and Brunei. Singapore: I think everyone understands that the four tigers in the past, guarding Malacca, are all Chinese, and it is difficult not to be rich. It is an economic, **, freight and financial center. Brunei is a small country with a lot of oil. This is also easy to understand.

Next up should be Malaysia and Thailand, then the Philippines and Indonesia.

The least wealthy should be Myanmar, Laos, these countries, Vietnam is better.

In summary, there are several reasons:

Historical and political reasons. Vietnam, for example, has been through several wars. In addition, the previous relatively unopen social system, labor shortage, and so on are all reasons.

Of course, now Vietnam's economy is developing rapidly. Another example is the Philippines, where democracy is a serious breed of corruption and political internal friction. In Myanmar, for example, political instability has hindered economic development.

The human factor. The human factor is twofold. The first is race.

Most people in Southeast Asian countries are in the tropics, so they are mostly optimistic. Temperate peoples, such as China and Japan, have evolved a hard-working and thrifty national character. The national character of Southeast Asia is more lazy and pursues comfort.

So in terms of personality, the work is not so competitive. The second is talent. Especially in recent years, with the development of high technology, life and economy have become more and more dependent on high technology.

The talent pool of big and powerful countries in this area is very strong. But you don't know much about any university in Southeast Asia that is very good at this, or a company that is very good at high technology. Most of them are traditional industries.

Therefore, talents are relatively backward.

resource factor. But this is not common in every country. For example, the Philippines is actually relatively scarce in resources, especially in oil, coal, steel and so on. It will naturally have an impact on the development of the economy.

The strength of the country itself, the financial strength. Any international financial trend will have a serious impact on Southeast Asian countries, after all, foreign exchange reserves are insufficient, and several countries can survive another financial crisis.

Although it is said that Southeast Asian countries are an alliance and ASEAN as a whole, there are many differences between them and Europe, and the social system, religion, and economic foundation of each country are too different, and it is difficult to compete with foreign countries with a strong whole.