Although Thailand's service sector accounts for almost half of the national income and has a major stake in national employment, its contribution to the growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) fluctuates. Moreover, the share of the service sector in GDP is decreasing while many developed...

In the past 10 years, the service sector has been a significant contributor to overall economic growth in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam. Sector growth has been supported by strong industrial growth in some while in others the critical factors have been...

The transition from low-income developing countr y to high-income developed country involves a deep process of structural transformation in which the productive structure of an economy changes. In this paper we examine this process of structural chan ge and its link to productivity growth for a...

This paper argues that the single most important factor that explains East Asia's development success was its fast structural transformation toward industrialization, manufacturing in particular. Workers moved out of agriculture into manufacturing, and the sector diversified and upgraded its...

With a strong recovery from the global crisis, the Philippines policy focus will shift again to a long-term development agenda. Despite favorable initial conditions, the Philippines long-term growth performance has been disappointing. Over the decades, the economy has suffered from high...

After two generations of economic growth, the next phase of structural transformation for Asia will have several salient features. Our results suggest that no single policy orientation, pathway, or even destination will apply to all economies. The main driver for each economy's structural change...

This paper analyzes the degree of structural transformation in the Kyrgyz Republic's economy by applying the new approach developed by Hausmann and Klinger (2007) and Hidalgo et al. (2007). We focus on the level of sophistication of the country's exports, and discuss policy options to transform...

Developing Asias rapid economic growth has been shifting the global economic and industrial centers of gravity away from the North Atlantic, raising the importance of Asia in world trade, and boosting SouthSouth trade. How will trade patterns change over the next 2 decades in the course of...

The maturing of the manufacturing sector in many Asian countries, combined with the relative backwardness of its service sector, has made service sector development a top priority for developing Asia. Our central objective is to broadly survey and analyze the current landscape of the region's...