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Name: Ashfaq Tunio
Bio: Development and knowledge-management consultant
Area of Expertise: Futurist/Consultant
Topic: Economic structures
Headline: Accelerated Economic Development – Leapfrogging
Nutshell: Widespread availability of knowledge will enable rapid economic development in presently underdeveloped countries.
Vision:The traditional theories of development all assume that the presently underdeveloped countries will follow the same route as the presently developed countries, i.e. industrialisation followed by the rise of the service industry; painstaking establishment of infrastructure; export-led growth; and so on. However, I believe that with the increasingly widespread availability of all sorts of useful knowledge (through the Internet, telecommunications, and even print media), ideas, tool for development will spread rapidly, the masses will be mobilized and energized more quickly, planning and execution of projects more efficient, and capital inflows more effective.
Leapfrogging of nations over certain stages of technological evolution and using other countries’ experiences to avoid mistakes and delays will also accelerate economic development. We have seen some of this in the Asian tigers, and are witnessing it in China and India. It won’t be long before the economic engine revs up in other underdeveloped countries.
Date Submitted: May 12, 2005