National champions in the context of "Globalisation"

The East Asian model (Japanese: 修正資本主義, romanized: shūsei shihonshugi, lit. 'modified capitalism'), pioneered by Japan, is a plan for economic growth whereby the government invests in certain sectors of the economy in order to stimulate the growth of specific industries in the private sector. It generally refers to the model of development pursued in East Asian economies such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. It has also been used by some to describe the contemporary economic system in Mainland China after Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms during the late 1970s and the current economic system of Vietnam after its Đổi Mới policy was implemented in 1986. Generally, as a country becomes more developed, the most common employment industry transitions from agriculture to manufacturing, and then to services.

The main shared approach of East Asian economies is the role of the government. For East Asian governments have recognized the limitations of markets in allocation of scarce resources in the economy, thus the governments have used interventions to promote economic development. They include state control of finance, direct support for state-owned enterprises in strategic sectors of the economy or the creation of privately owned national champions, high dependence on the export market for growth, and a high rate of savings. It is similar to dirigisme, neomercantilism, and Hamiltonian economics.

The TGV (French: [teʒeve] ; train à grande vitesse, [tʁɛ̃ a ɡʁɑ̃d vitɛs] , 'high-speed train') is France's intercity high-speed rail service. With commercial operating speeds of up to 320 km/h (200 mph) on the newer lines, the TGV was conceived at the same period as other technological projects such as the Ariane 1 rocket and Concorde supersonic airliner; sponsored by the Government of France, those funding programmes were known as champion national ('national champion') policies. In 2023 the TGV network in France carried 122 million passengers.

The state-owned SNCF started working on a high-speed rail network in 1966. It presented the project to President Georges Pompidou in 1974 who approved it. Originally designed as turbotrains to be powered by gas turbines, TGV prototypes evolved into electric trains with the 1973 oil crisis. In 1976 the SNCF ordered 87 high-speed trains from Alstom. Following the inaugural service between Paris and Lyon in 1981 on the LGV Sud-Est, the network, centred on Paris, has expanded to connect major cities across France, including Marseille, Lille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Rennes and Montpellier, as well as in neighbouring countries on a combination of high-speed and conventional lines. The success of the first high-speed service led to a rapid development of lignes à grande vitesse (LGVs, 'high-speed lines') to the south (Rhône-Alpes, Méditerranée, Nîmes–Montpellier), west (Atlantique, Bretagne-Pays de la Loire, Sud Europe Atlantique), north (Nord, Interconnexion Est) and east (Rhin-Rhône, Est). Since it was launched, the TGV has not recorded a single passenger fatality in an accident on normal, high-speed service.