Flying Geese Paradigm

(i) A brief definition of Flying geese phenomena

The Flying geese phenomena was developed by Kaname Akamatsu in the 1930s with
the perspective of East Asian countries as model that could lead to economic growth
of each East Asian countries with regard to their respective core competence in the
global market. However, it was not until the early 1960s when the model gained its
popularity after being published in the “Journal of Developing Economies”.
The East Asian countries of the continent have always been standing out in the world
due to the fact that people from these countries have a different perspective to that of
the world. Although countries like America may be considered the pioneer supplier of
commodities in the world, it is due to the economies of these few developed and few
developing countries that are always handing out significant competition to the major
holders of the market share in the world. The Flying geese model aimed to unite these
nations due to their similar yet distinct forms of market.
The model, as clearly comprehensible by the name aligned them in the pattern which
resembled that of a flock of flying geese, or a hyperbola shape that showed the cycle
in which countries should align in order to benefit from the world trade to the
maximum.
The Leader
According to the creator of the model, Kaname Akamatsu, Japan was at the beginning
of the model as it is one of the most developed countries in the region. The reason
behind Japan being selected at the front of the formation was that it was most
advanced technically. After the Second World War, Japan was not only devastated
from an economic point of view, but had also suffered major casualties that had led to
drastically low levels of skilled workers available in the labor market. However the
country had also worked hard to stabilize itself and had established itself as a major
competitor to USA in the technological market by the early 1990s. Japan was not
only the highest growing country of the region but also became the first fully
developed country of the region itself.
The Mid-Formation
The middle formation consisted of the main ASEAN countries, namely Malaysia
Thailand and Indonesia. These countries may be considered quite developed in
today’s era but at the time the papers were published the countries had to also start
from the scratch and then work their way up. The countries needed to use
industrialization in order to establish themselves in the global market and educate the
general population in to skilled labor to be able to produce a high GDP and greater
exports. The group was the second in line to develop after Japan.
The rear-end Formation
 The countries that were put up at the rear end to supply the further groups with cheap
labor in order to facilitate the more developed economies in increasing their
production, and the group consisted of countries which were China Vietnam and
Philippines. The logic behind putting up these countries in the rear formation was that
these countries were not technologically but had a large population which could be
trained for production. Moreover these were the countries which were least developed
in the region when the theory was introduced. Currently, China has become such an
economy that it has products in every market that is known to an average person. In
fact, China is one of the major reasons that the major brands have had to decrease
their prices and become more accessible to the customers. China not only targets
every market, but is also careful in keeping check on its quality such that high quality
products do find their way to the target customer. Similar has been the case with both
Vietnam and Philippines, who may have not experienced success as high as China in
the group but have definitely developed to the extent that they are considered
significant in the global market.

(ii) The chain of growth from A to C

Although it seems improbable that an economy could develop at a greater pace by
adopting the Flying geese model but according to the history it has been evident that
it is in fact true. Not only have the East Asian countries been able to bounce back to
the global markets multiple times, but have had done so with such ferocity with the
goods they offer that there is a specific market for each country where it is dominant
and cannot be challenged. As stated by the originally introduced Flying Geese model,
Japan being at the front of the formation led to the fact that it developed at the fastest
pace and the economy developed the most compared to its neighbors. Moreover,
Japan has not only dominated the Global market in technology but has also been able
to challenge the automobile industry and become one of the major parts of it. By
concentrating its efforts towards fuel efficiency in the automobile industry, Japanese
cars are most widely bought by the general public due to their lower running
expenses, clearly establishing their core competence in the market. This success was
then transferred to other countries, such as after Japan became successful other
developing economies came into play such as Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.

How the front countries progress

The first and foremost question that arises in the minds of a theorist is that how will
the countries develop from a scratch from a model that seems like a union but works
like an organization. The answer is fairly simple, the country at the front, Japan,
should shift its concentration from labor intensive industries to capital intensive
industries, exactly the way it was actually done. Instead of developing and creating
factories that would require more unskilled workers and produce low priced
 commodities, Japan aimed to target and develop factories that required more capital
while at the same time requiring lower amounts of skilled labor to alternate growth of
its GDP. The country was successful in doing so because the country had a smaller
population compared to its neighbors and due to the culture of the country people
were generally more skilled.

Progression for mid-formation countries

Next in line were the countries that had a sufficient population to develop and strive
on labor intensive industries, but were unable to do so due to the fact that the general
population at the time lacked skill to perform difficult tasks. Yet, these were one of
the most important countries and were extremely essential to the East Asian region,
not only because of the tourism their culture attracted, but also because they were the
next in line to be developed after Japan itself. This can be one of the reasons that the
automotive industry experienced quite a shift when the countries of the middle
formation also developed products to be sold in the market for automotive.

Economic Growth For countries at the rear

Last came the turn of growth for countries that lied at the end of the chain. These
economies were classified at the end because they possessed extra man power that
could prove highly successful in the labor intensive industries, but due to their
financial conditions were not able to invest in such industries. The Flying geese
model enable the front and middle countries to work on more capital intensive
industries while at the same time it helps these economies to invest in labor intensive
industries in order to increase their production.

How the flying geese pattern contributed to economic growth

It can be easily identified that the secret behind the success of flying geese model was
that it successfully targeted the strengths of each country in the region and then
assessed the situation as to how this competence can be utilized. However, the
significance of the use of flying geese patterns is that it also specifies the industries
which need to be invested into and the need to keep the investment consistent in order
to develop their respective economies. For example, knowing that the population of
Japan is smaller and the availability of skilled worker is in majority, Japan is likely to
benefit more from investing in capital intensive industries. Similarly China has a
large population and majority of its population is unskilled so the country is able to
labor intensive industries.

(iii) The countries of flying geese pattern are not fixed

A problem that arises on implementation of the Flying geese model is that the model
cannot be fully concrete on labeling the countries in the region. Not only does this
mean that the countries may keep changing and the model may need to be updated
again and again, but it may also mean that the “alliance” formed by the model may
very well be fragile when it comes to proper implementation. As can be seen by the
workings of the Chinese economy, the model may need to alter the list of countries
with comparison to the original list where China was placed at the end being
considered least developed of the region. Although even today the Chinese population
may be quite large, a significant amount of labor force is considered skilled and this is
one of the reasons that China has also been able to compete in the technological
market with products that imitate the features of their original counterparts and is still
able to produce, ship and sell them at a significantly lower price than the originals.
The labor force of China is also so much diverse that China has been able to compete
in every market perceived by an average person. Although it still means that China is
yet investing much of its finances towards labor intensive industries, but it is also
evident that the economy has become sufficiently strong to compete alone in the
global market as well effectively eliminating its submission of services which the
flying geese model requires.
The countries listed with respect to their positions would need to be altered in light of
recent events as well, where although many countries have experienced significant
change in their economies in the recent years, much of the countries which became
successful initially have been looking at their rate of growth become stagnant.

Reliance on Foreign Investment

Another one of the major weaknesses that have been overlooked by the flying geese
model is that it is heavily reliant on consistent investment. The model not only
depends on the state of investment into an economy but also needs stability in the
foreign markets to be successful which is next to impossible according to the current
trends of the global market. Japan has although established itself one of the greatest
producers of technological products, but the economy has been considered stagnant
since the last two decades. The plaza Accord of 1985 resulted in the yen appreciating
in value against the US dollar, and as the global market operates in the US dollar then
this meant that Japanese products actually became more expensive in the market. This
scenario not only made Japanese products expensive but also meant that USA and
China were able to shave off customers from Japan. Japan was also unable to
diversify its concentration beyond the technological market as the stagnated flow of
investment also meant stagnated wages for workers. It is also one of the reasons
behind the countries in the region to diversify into other markets so in order to better
counter the fluctuating flow of investment.