United Nations in Cambodia to organize a lecture on "The Real China Model"

The United Nations in Cambodia is organizing a lecture on "The Real China Model: What other developing countries should learn from China". The main speaker will be Professor Yuen Yuen Ang, author of the book, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap.

Professor Ang argues that many view the China model as simply top-down governance coupled with massive investments in infrastructure, as such, they assume that other developing countries should or will copy these features.

Professor Ang debunks this common misunderstanding by systematically tracing the history of China's economic and institutional changes from 1978 to 2012.

In her book, Professor Ang argues that it is misleading to equate the China model with conventional authoritarianism.

Professor Ang points out that the real key to China's success is not top-down control; instead, it's "directed improvisation"— the mixture of top-down direction from Beijing and bottom-up improvisation among numerous local governments—that enabled a locally tailored pattern of development.

What countries like Cambodia could learn from China is to adopt "directed improvisation" to democratic settings: leveraging local resources that may not comply with Western best practices, giving a broad scope of actors a personal stake in the development, and fostering bottom-up improvisation within society and/or government.

The United Nations in Cambodia has invited Professor Ang to give a public lecture on her work and how it relates to Cambodia's socio-economic development opportunities and challenges.