Import substitution in high-tech industries: Prebisch lives in Asia!

Prebisch “lives” in Asia because leading Asian governments still actively promote import substitution of high-tech parts and components. But they use promotional measures other than tariff protection to do so. Given performance standards, they have been highly successful. Now Latin America is behind Asian latecomers because it missed becoming a player in the information technology revolution. But Latin America can still learn from Asia rather than the Washington Consensus about how nationally owned enterprises can build mature high-tech industries in fields other than electronics.