From the NIEs to the BRICs: See the World in Your Own Eyes

The Inaugural Lecture by Professor Edward Chen Kwan-Yiu was held today in Loke Yew Hall, the University of Hong Kong. This is the lecture organized by the former students of Professor Edward Chen to extend their gratitude to their respectable teacher.

The topic was “From the NIEs to the BRICs: Development Theory Revisited”. Professor Chen talked about his inaugural lecture as the chair professor of our faculty in HKU. At that time, the lecture was about the NIEs (Newly Industrializing Economies). It gave people the enlightenment that small, resources-scarce countries with open policies could develop quickly if in right conditions. Nowadays, the world seems to have been changing. The emergence of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) seems to suggest the repeat of history: large, resources-abundant countries can survive and develop well when small, open economies might be vulnerable in the international financial integration.

However, in Professor Chen’s eyes, the world has not changed too much. The core conditions of development for these countries are the same. The active attitude towards openness is still the most important. The role of government is still kept its place while the western world holds the laissez-faire as a creed. The cultural values different from the Christianity are both held true for the Four Little Dragons and the BRICs.

The transition from the NIEs to the BRICs was along with development from the so-called “Hong Kong Consensus” suggested by Professor Chen to the “Beijing Consensus”. Both are quite different from the “Washington Consensus”. The repeated mention of the “positive non-interventionism” and the repeated criticism of the laissez-faire policies made people remember repeatedly the environment we were living. Why his theories and hypotheses are so well-received in Hong Kong and probably south-east Asia? He sees the world from his own eyes and speaks out. That’s very important.

What I mean by seeing the world from his own eyes is about the way he sees the world. When you see the world with your own eyes, you are making assumptions and determine those very important factors that you are going to consent to. The choice of assumptions and factors sometimes come from data, but your own personal philosophy might count, which also makes culture a very important factor in social science research. The well-reception of the positive non-interventionism probably might be easier in Asia than in western world. I think perhaps that’s why Professor Chen lists culture other than Christianity as a very important factor for both models.