Overview

In 1960, the GDP per capita of Southeast Asian countries was nearly half of that of Africa. By 1986 the gap had closed and today the trend is reversed, with more than half of the world's poorest now living in sub Saharan Africa. Why has Asia developed while Africa lagged? The Asian Aspiration chronicles the stories of explosive growth and changing fortunes: the leaders, events and policy choices that lifted a billion people out of abject poverty within a single generation, the largest such shift in human history. The relevance of Asia's example comes as Africa is facing a population boom, which can either lead to crisis or prosperity, and as Asia is again transforming, this time out of low-cost manufacturing into hi-tech, leaving a void that is Africa's for the taking. Far from the optimistic determinism of 'Africa Rising', this book calls for unprecedented pragmatism in the pursuit of African success.

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9781787384453

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Reviews

'Unlike most of the recent books vaunting the economic success of East Asia relative to Africa, this one does not limit its Asian examples to China, South Korea, and Taiwan; the authors also discuss poorer countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, whose history and pas economic policy failures make their recent successes more instructive for African countries.' -- Foreign Affairs

Author Information

Greg Mills heads the Johannesburg-based Brenthurst Foundation; Olusegun Obasanjo is a former president of Nigeria; Hailemariam Desalegn was the prime minister of Ethiopia; Emily van der Merwe is an economist at The Brenthurst Foundation.

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