Newly industrialized country (NIC), country whose national economy has transitioned from being primarily based in agriculture to being primarily based in goods-producing industries, such as manufacturing, construction, and mining, during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. An NIC also trades more with other countries and has a higher standard of living than developing countries. However, it has not yet reached the level of economic advancement of developed countries and regions such as the United States, Japan, and western Europe.
NICs began to be recognized during the second half of the 20th century, when economies such as those of Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan underwent rapid industrial growth. Several other countries—such as Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Russia, China, and India—industrialized during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Each experienced a general rise in per capita income, although a higher income does not necessarily reflect a higher development status. For example, India and China, because of their large populations, have low per capita incomes even though they have significant economic growth rates and large manufacturing sectors. Industrialization and growth in NICs has been achieved through diverse means: for example, import substitution (substituting domestically produced products for those previously imported) in India, export-oriented growth in Taiwan and South Korea, investment in fossil-fuel extraction in Russia, and attraction of inward foreign investment in China.
Yet there are some common features usually shared by NICs. Those include political and economic reforms allowing for greater civil rights and market liberalization, strengthening of the legal and economic environment to foster increased competition and privatization of industries, and trade liberalization policies allowing increased exchange of goods and cross-border investment. In almost all NICs, greater industrialization has led to increased trade, greater economic growth, participation in regional trading blocs, and attraction of foreign investment, especially from developed countries.