People forget this is actually what Singapore did. Before being a biotech and tech powerhouse, they were an assembly factory for western companies. Then they slowly expanded from that to airport, tech, airline, etc.

They have a geographic advantage too, but no one had to make Singapore a central shipping hub, it could have been anywhere else.

This is how you do it. There’s no other way. Eastern Europe is an interesting work in progress at the same thing. But the Ukraine war has really put a spanner in the works.