Edited sentence: As mentioned before, for geopolitical reasons, many East Asian countries received open market policies and incentives for industrialization from the United States government, as a means of creating a "contention belt" of capitalist countries around communist nations in Asia.For instance: from 1953 until 1960, the United States financed 70% of South Korea's imports of commodities, which allowed it to rise from a rural producer to an exporter of manufactured goods in just seven years (Hong & Krueger, Trade and Development in Korea.It should be contended, however, that outward-looking development did not pose as a choice for many countries.Seoul: Korea Development Institute, 1975).With such a clear path for development laid out, South Korea naturally invested in educating its population to meet the needs of its exports-driven industry