In the last three decades the Asian continent has gone through a rapid change. There are countries which have achieved prosperity like the west. Yet there are many developing countries who are on the verge of this kind of growth.
Vietnam, Most people remember this country because of its horrifying history of wars and conflicts. But nowadays Vietnam is on the top of the news because of its unbelievable economic progress. The change started in 1986 when Vietnam launched a political and economic innovation campaign, Doi Moi. This reform was aimed to restructure the centrally planned economy into a socialist-oriented market economy. Slowly after that Vietnam invested in human development and infrastructure programs and foreign investment started to come in.
At the same time, International trade agreements also played a key role in Vietnam's growth over the last 20 years. In 1995, Vietnam joined the ASEAN free trade area. In 2000, they signed a FTA with the US and in 2007 they joined the World Trade Organization.
All of this has helped become one of the favorite destinations to set up factories.
Like Vietnam, India also came with a lot of struggle and political turmoil in the past. Even Thirty forty years after its independence India did not grew significantly, the real changes in the Indian economy started in 1991. India's economic journey has been amazing, from $288 billion in 1992 to more than $3 trillion today.
The reforms helped the country to shift from an agriculture-based economy to an industrial and service-based economy. But unlike Vietnam, India's growth has mostly come with the services and IT sector in the country. Over the past 60 years, the service industry in India has increased from a fraction of the GDP to approximately 55.9% between 2019 and 2020. Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a well-known industry in India. BPO is the fastest-growing segment of the ITES industry in India. Now the country is looking to be a manufacturing hub in electronic and other engineering goods. New government policies are encouraging the manufacturing sector and they are attracting a lot of foreign companies to set up factories in India.
Next we are gonna talk about Indonesia. Indonesia is a very special country. You see there is a trend in many developing nations, most of them follow a typical path for their economic development. They transform from an agriculture based economy to an industrial and service based economy. But this was not the case in Indonesia. The country is quite rich in natural resources. They holds large reserves of crude palm oil, coal, gas, and copper. In the 2000s they made a lot of money due to the commodity boom in the international market which helped them to recover from the Asian Financial Crisis. Indonesia also has a large young population. This massive population creates a huge demand for consumer goods. Along with this, the growing middle class is also contributing to the rapid urbanization of the country. This helped Indonesia's large industrial and service sector growth.
This growth in other sectors is helping them to reduce their dependence on commodity exports, which is essential for a growing nation. It is estimated that by 2030 Indonesia could be the largest economy in Asia after China and India. Due to its large population Indonesia is set to become one of the biggest consumer markets. Indonesia's working class population is becoming the backbone of the country's economy.
Bangladesh, this is a country that was once called a basket case and is now being one of the fastest-growing economies in south Asia. Born out of war Bangladesh has come a long way from its early days. Its GDP rose from 100 billion in 2009 to almost 303 billion dollars in 2019. This has happened because the government abandoned the nationalization policy and gradually gave greater scope to private sector participation in the economy. Many state-owned enterprises have been privatized, like banking, telecommunication, aviation, media, and some other industries. But there is another reason for Bangladesh's economic growth: the garment industry. The garment industry has grown massively in the country in recent times. Bangladesh has become the 2nd largest manufacturer of the ready-made garment. It is the main item of export which accounts for 84.21% of total exports of the nation. One of the reasons Bangladesh has been successful in capitalizing on the garment industry is the massive labor force of the country.
Beside the garment industry, the country is betting on Pharmaceutical and IT industries in the future. Today Bangladesh is a nearly 300 billion dollar economy, but by 2030 it could grow to 800 billion dollars, if they play their cards properly.
So, in the coming time, these could also be the next countries to show a significant influence on the world economy. And they really are the ones to keep an eye on.


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