Planned Industry and Development in Socialist-oriented Developing Countries : Hindrances and Reforms

Abstract

The so-called planned industrializing model, geared towards an economic development based on heavy industry, spread to several Third World countries in the sixties and the seventies. It was often considered as a symbol lof economic self-sufficiency and of political liberation. Between 1960 and 1976, 1,369 affiliates of transnational corporations were nationalized in the Third World, mainly in those countries which were implementing a Socialist-oriented strategy of development. In this period, the model was regarded as a one way avenue to a warranted genuine economic development, and in addition to Socialism. Planing and building a heavy industry ceased to be fashionable in the eighties, even in some Socialist-oriented developing countries, if we look at their present practice instead of listening to the rhetoric of their political leaders. Some U-turns might welll appear in the future as has already been the case in the past with Ghana, Egypt and Somalia. At least the one way avenue does not seem straight. It has even been suggested that Socialist-oriented developing countries (SODCs) have lost their illusions and their faith in Soviet-type development(Laidi, 1984)