After the collapse of the colonial system, the countries began to be divided into the first world, comprising capitalist countries, the second world — the countries of socialism, and the third world — the countries that freed themselves of colonial dependence, but not yet determined the path of social development. But it was not so long ago that several of the third world countries made a breakthrough from peasant pre-industrial countries to industrial countries at different stages of development. Accordingly, new industrial countries (NIS) of the first, second, third, and fourth generations emerged. New industrial countries have appeared in different regions and on different continents, they have both specific and common features inherent in the main trends in the development of the world economy. But in this case, the research will be focused on the NIS in the Asian region, which made the "leap" from the third world to the first. Because of this "leap" they are often called "Asian tigers". These are South Korea (Republic of Korea), Singapore, Taiwan (Republic of China), and Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a former British colony, which in accordance with the Sino-British Joint Declaration came under the jurisdiction of the PRC in 1997 and became its special administrative region (SAR). At the same time, Hong Kong lost the right to conduct foreign and defense policy, retaining the right to have its own political and economic system for 50 years. In China, such a model is called "one country-two systems", and Beijing expects to offer it to Taiwan, which it considers to be an integral part of China. Of the four "Asian tigers", Singapore and South Korea are of particular interest to scholars and specialists. How could these initially extremely backward and resource-poor countries become prosperous states in a short span of time? The value of this article is that the author points to the experience of NIS, which could be used in Russia.