Africa needs to follow Singapore, Japan to become manufacturing hotspot

While Africa might have to wait, that shouldn't prevent individual African countries from trying hard to industrialize on their own

When it comes to economic development, China’s amazing success soaks up much of the attention. But another huge region has quietly begun what looks like a new phase of exponential growth: Southeast Asia. The sustained enrichment of this region will transform the world, and carry important lessons for struggling countries like those in Africa.

Southeast Asia was once almost completely colonized by European powers, and much of it was devastated by a series of wars and internal strife in the mid-20th century. It remains largely poor, with notable exceptions including the wealthy city-state of Singapore, middle-income Thailand and Malaysia, an