TNAG-2597-FCO40-3785-Appointment-of-Chris-Patten-as-new-Governor-of-Hong-Kong--Ap-1992 — Page 45

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