technologies described above, information technology, biotechnology, and material
sciences, are cases in point. As soon as a new technology is introduced, different
developing countries would look for opportunities and find different production niches
in accordance with their competitive edges. Given time, some flying-geese type of
diffusion of processes/products from a higher tier to a lower tier of countries will
certainly also occur. But the primary and more interesting aspect of this pattern of
industrial specialization is technology-determined. To describe this vision of industrial
development and specialization, the scene of a battalion of soldiers on parade is perhaps
more appropriate than that of a team of flying geese. Soldiers on parade form into
different patterns and take up different roles in the formation of such patterns on the
instructions of their commander and in accordance with changing tunes in music. This
is analogous to what we have said above different patterns of industrial specialization
generated by different newly developed technologies. For example, with the emergence
of biotechnology, different Asia-Pacific economies have responded somewhat differently
and focussed on somewhat different areas of specialization when applying the technology
to agriculture and industry. This specialization does not exhibit any "flying geese"
pattern in which specialization is in accordance with a packing order of economies. With
the possibility of technological leapfrogging, the area of specialization in the application
of a particular technology is not necessarily related to the level of development of that
country. With a new technology emerging, another clustering will take place with
different countries responding somewhat differently. A parading soldiers hypothesis of
industrial development should at least exist side by side with the flying geese hypothesis
if the former is not to replace the latter.
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2.
Development of Services in the ANIES