This first group includes: USA, Canada, all countries of Western Europe, Japan, Israel, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand. Since 1995, this group includes a number of NIS: Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea. In all respects, this group could include Hong Kong (Hong Kong), a former colony of Great Britain. Since 1997, this territory has been part of China as a special administrative region, but for 50 years it will retain the socio-economic system, the way of life of the population inherent in this territory during the period of colonial dependence on Great Britain.
This group of countries is distinguished by a high level of economic development, the predominance of manufacturing industries, services and information. In these countries, capitalist relations have long dominated, although the nature of these relations has serious differences. In a number of countries such as Germany, France, Sweden, Finland, a model of a socially-oriented market economy has been adopted, and in Great Britain, the USA, and Ireland, a neoliberal model of development.
The countries included in this group, having passed the agrarian, industrial stages of development, are at the post-industrial stage, and some (USA, Great Britain, etc.) have moved to the creation of an information society. This process is well reflected in the growing share of the sphere of non-material production in the creation of GDP, it is not lower than 60% in these countries, in many it is close to 80%. There is a guaranteed state level of social protection, a high duration and quality of life, education and health care, a high level of cultural development.
In these countries, the era of mass consumption has come, characterized by efficient production of goods and services, high consumer demand.
Economically highly developed countries occupy 8.1% of the world’s territory, their share in the world population is about 15%. They produce 77% of the world’s industrial output, dominate the market of new technologies, information, knowledge. This group of countries accounts for the bulk of foreign direct investment. The countries belonging to this group, on the one hand, compete with each other in the struggle to increase their share in the control of world production and the market, and on the other hand, unite their efforts to prevent the reduction of this control.