The group, named the “PC16” or “the Post-China 16” by geopolitical intelligence firm and report authors, Stratfor, includes countries as disparate as Ethiopia, Cambodia and Mexico.

Following years of progression, China’s growth has started to slow as the economy rebalances away from exports and investment towards greater domestic consumption.

Between April and June the world’s second biggest economy grew by 7.5% compared to the previous year, down from 7.7% in the January to March period.

The report said that the era of Chinese development — predicated on low wages to conquer global markets — is ending because there are now other nations with even lower wages and other advantages such as political stability and demographics.

Founder and chairman of Stratfor, George Friedman, explained that no single country can replace China as its size is staggering. He said its successors will not be one country but several countries, most at roughly the same stage of development.

The PC16 includes:

• Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Myanmar
• Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, and Vietnam
• Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru

“Taken together, these countries have a total population of just over 1 billion people. We didn’t aim for that; we realized it after we selected the countries,” Friedman said.

“The point to emphasise is that identifying the PC16 is not a forecast. It is a list of countries in which we see significant movement of stage industries, particularly garment and footwear manufacturing and mobile phone assembly.

“In our view, the dispersal of industries that we see as markers of early-stage economic growth is already underway. In addition, there are no extreme blocks to further economic growth, although few of these countries would come to mind as having low political risk and high stability — no more than China would have come to mind in 1978-1980.

“I should also note that we have excluded countries growing because of energy and mineral extraction. These countries follow different paths of development. The PC16 are strictly successors to China as low wage, underdeveloped countries with opportunities to grow their manufacturing sectors dramatically.”