East Asia

Latin America constitutes of the parts of America that were part of the Portuguese and Spanish Empires. Some of the countries in this region include most Central and South America, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and some Caribbean countries. In general, Latin America comprises of those territories and countries in America that speak a Romance language. It is one of the few regions in the world that has experienced a drastic economic growth for the past two decades, based on certain policies. East Asia is a Chinese Cultural sphere, thus; many people in this region are Chinese, although there are people from all over the world. It also refers to a geographical area that covers China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and ASEAN countries in terms of integration ((Dixon 216). As the name depicts, it can also refer to the countries located in the eastern region of Asia. The economies of these two regions are the largest ones in the world. Despite their geographical locations, they have grown considerably over the past few decades.

Comparing the Economies of Latin America and East Asia

Latin America countries gained independence in 1804 but were later encroached by the Cold War that left the negative impact on these countries, including poor health care and poverty. In 1982, there was a debt crisis in Mexico, which made Latin America economies to be discredited all through that decade. This led to reversal development that was evident in negative economic growth and industrial production declines. The living standards of the middle and the lower class people dropped. It made the Latin American governments privatize national industries and make labor informal. They also embraced globalization by interacting openly with the international economies. With time there was upward income redistribution, increasing the levels of inequality and poverty. The poor revitalized social movements in an effort to develop (Mainwaring 97). However, over years, there has been social awareness creation that has led to the active representation of the poor due to return of democracy that had been dumped in this region. According to the World Bank, the economy of Latin America may grow by 4.5% this year. This is favored by among other reasons, demand for iron ore, tin and gold in Asia. There are also strong policies that have seen continued growth in this region over time. In 2009, the largest Latin countries had GDPs greater than China’s while in 2010, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Panama and Mexico were classified as high-income countries.

East Asia is also one of the most successful economies in the world. The area became a region of economic power in the 19^th century with the Meiji Restoration, when Japan demonstrated its industrial power competing with the United States of America and the Europe (Dixon 223). This has been attributed to many factors including abundant natural resources, favorable environments for commerce and industry, availability and affordability of both skilled and unskilled labor in the region. Today, this is a well-known region, where structural differentiation, autonomy of the systems of economy and specialization are highly exercised. This has led to successful commercial and industrial growth within the region. The government in this region has encouraged open trading systems, where there is low or zero duties charged on capital and consumer goods importations. This is also coupled with great inventions and innovations in that area where people have demonstrated learning and utilization of new and old skills in line with production. There is a highly positive work ethics in the region and also a dependable and fast-growing market for all services and also for consumer products. There is an estimated 2,075 million people within the region with 65.5% of them being within the working bracket of 15 to 59 years of age.

The Government of Latin America and East Asia

Latin America nations have good governance systems that have facilitated the putting up of policies that have led to the evident development in that region. Each nation has its own government but these governments work together in some areas so as to achieve this evident economic growth in the region. The governments are not bound to follow what the others are doing if they do not consider it to be of importance to their individual nations. For example, Uruguay is a close business ally of the USA, despite the fact that many Latin American countries do not deal with the USA (Mainwaring 113).

The East Asian countries also have their own individual governments that are all development focused. Despite the fact that they work closely to each other in economic matters, each nation has its own leadership that leads in this. These governments encourage high levels of savings, a policy that is rare in other parts of the world. It is also left to the governments in this region to initiate and facilitate education to all children, which has become a basis for their success. These governments invest highly in education since they believe in building strong foundations for the future developments.

The Role of Cold War in Latin America and East Asia

Cold war encroached Latin America in 1950’s. It brought about many adverse effects to the region that had seen positive growth in all aspects of life. This came as a result of the threat that the region posed to the United States of America, due to having democratic leaders. This threatened the USA’s businesses in Latin America. Hence, they interfered with their governance by removing in place the democratically elected leaders and giving leadership to the friendliest leaders of the USA (Chelan 172). This was a blowback, since many Latin American nations did not want USA to involve itself in their territorial affairs. There was political polarization as a result of a coup from the right wing countries. Until 1980s and early 1990s, many Latin American countries had dictatorial leaders but they managed to overthrow them to achieve back their democracy, excluding Cuba.

East Asia supported the communistic revolutions that the western nations opposed. The end of this war led to the drawing of the map of how European region should look like. The support that the East Asia gave to the European states has to date contributed to the good relationship that has led to the growth of business between the two regions. The East Asian region is able to freely trade with the European countries without much restrictions as opposed to trading with the USA. The European region, on the other hand, has been a great consumer of technology that comes from the East Asian region. This could be an attributed factor of the economic development of this region ( Dixon 106).

It is evident that these two regions have so much in common that has led to their massive development in almost all aspects. The regions’ industrial investments and their exports orientation has made them accumulate stock capital that is reflected in their rates of development.