Malaysia NAP: More Shadows than Lights

After World War II, and in particular during the 1960s and the 1970s, many developing countries began their industrial revolution path. In particular, most of them followed a path of government-led industrial development, with central planning at the heart of the industrial policy. Such a model is not new in economic history and it is typical of many ‘second-comers’ in the industrialization process. The most famous one is the case of Prussia/Germany: with the Zollverein (1833-34) and after the unification in 1870, it was the government which stimulated the development of a powerful heavy industrial system, following what was preached at the time by Friedrich List. In particular, the key point of List preaching was that second-comers countries need to protect their industrialization process (characterized by infant industries) from foreign competition. According to List, once the protected industries reach an adequate competitive level, protection should be removed and the national companies should face competition in the market, in order to stimulate further technological development. Many second-comers countries embraced this model; however, in most cases they failed to follow the second part of List’s recommendations: opening to the market in a second stage