Emerging countries - also called emerging economies or of developing countries – are those classified as underdeveloped and which, however, show relative economic and social development compared to the poorest nations on the planet. These are countries that have medium or even slightly high levels of Human development, as well as a certain level of industrialization and economic growth, although it is practically impossible to generalize similar data and information for all countries included in this classification.
It is important to emphasize that emerging countries do not form a group "above" the countries underdeveloped, given that their societies are not free from problems related to underdevelopment. It is, in fact, a kind of “subgroup” within the generalities of these more fragile economies in the world context. Thus, if we say that Brazil is an emerging country, for example, the fact that it is also an underdeveloped country cannot be excluded.
Generally speaking, emerging countries have recently industrialized economies, which developed in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. It is worth noting that most of these industrialization processes occurred due to the massive entry of industries foreign companies, coming almost always from developed countries in search of cheap labor and other advantages location.
In this context, the exceptions are countries that lived through socialist periods or, more precisely, planned economy, such as Russia and China, although the opening of their economies later allowed the wide entry of companies as well. foreign companies. In the case of China, these companies, as a rule, must always be associated in joint venture to a local company and settle in the areas called Special Economic Zones (ZEEs). Russia, on the other hand – as the Soviet Union – prioritized an industrialization focused on basic industries and goods from capital, concentrating efforts on the development of steel, metallurgy, chemical and textile industries, among others.
Production line in headphone manufacturing in Shenzhen, China ¹
See below other emerging countries, by continent, which are highly industrialized:
- Latin America: Brazil, Argentina and Mexico;
- Asia: Asian Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore), the New Tigers (Thailand and Indonesia) and also India;
- Africa: South Africa.
Worker working in a tractor factory in Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil ²
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of course there are others industrialized emerging and underdeveloped countries, but this industrialization is still little advanced compared to the economies listed above. All of them have a relatively diversified productive scale, in addition to high urbanization rates and, more recently, a progressive tertiarization of their economies.
In addition to these countries, it is worth noting that, as members of the group of emerging countries, some other nations, such as Turkey, Serbia, Croatia, Uruguay, Venezuela, Nigeria, among others. It is a division that, in many moments, is not clearly presented, with, in this sense, many disagreements about which territories may or may not be considered emerging.
In order to better categorize the main developing countries, some classifications were created. In 2001, economist Jim O'Neill created the expression “BRIC” – which in English means “brick” – to refer to the four large economies that, at the time, had great growth prospects: Brazil, Russia, India and China.
These countries took advantage of the term and articulated around this name through an informal and unregulated cooperation mechanism, which later included South Africa. These savings, in the end, exceeded O'Neill's expectations in many ways, but they have suffered from economic constraints in recent years.
Another commonly used term is the "MIST", acronym for the initials of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey. At times, several economists even stated that these countries would surpass the BRICs in economic and even social development, but they ended up suffering serious impacts during the recent financial economic crisis.
Anyway, in addition to economic and industrial development, emerging countries have many challenges to face, especially with regard to human and social development. It is therefore necessary to further reduce the concentration of income, which remains strong in these countries, in addition to to promote better living conditions in cities and to democratize the supply and ownership of land in the field.
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¹ Image credits: Bartlomiej Magierowski / Shutterstock.com
² Image credits: AFNR / Shutterstock.com
By Me. Rodolfo Alves Pena
