Serious world power in that we retained a strong and important voice, we are becoming easier to ignore and Brexit is playing an important part in that. What made 'tiger' economies work was that they were built up from a very low base, were totally dominated by the state, focused entirely on...
EU development funds are targeted programmes to help the most deprived areas across the whole of the EU. This is important when in the UK funding is concentrated in large cities. We are a net contributor but being an EU member state has been massive fiscal boost to the UK.
I am sure that the EU develoment funds which have built so much infrastructure in places like the Welsh valleys will be replaced £ for £ by Westminster....*cough*