China is well-placed to avoid the so-called “middle-income trap” and to continue to converge towards the more advanced economies, even though growth is likely to slow from near double-digit rates in the first decade of this millennium to around 7% at the 2020 horizon. However, in order to...

African countries have sought to replicate the success of East Asia by implementing special economic zones. Despite decades of international experience, there remains no blueprint for successful special economic zone policies, and the majority of special economic zones fall well below...

It is widely assumed that there are no close precedents against which to benchmark the internationalisation of the renminbi (RMB). This paper argues that this overlooks the PRC's own recent economic history. This paper shows that efforts to internationalise the RMB in the 1970s offer important...

This study aims to investigate the relationship between China's exchange rate, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and economic development. We applied the bound testing approach on aggregate level data from 1981 to 2013. The results showed that the Chinese economy benefitted from a lower...

The Information Technology Agreement (ITA), a pluri-lateral trade agreement, seeks to accelerate and deepen the reduction of trade barriers for the critically important information and communication technology (ICT) industry. ITA thus provides an interesting case study of how tariff reduction...

According to government estimates published earlier today, China’s economy expanded by 3.0% in 2022, far below the official growth rate of 5.5% initially targeted by Beijing – but still more than G20 average for the year, and, more importantly, higher than recent forecasts made by the IMF,...

This paper examines several characteristics besides foreign ownership that influence the decision of clothing firms in China and Sri Lanka whether or not to export - namely, the acquisition of technological capabilities and learning from buyers. As a by-product of the exercise, the model also...

The rise of China has major repercussions for a country such as Bangladesh which has emerged as an important player in the global apparels market. True, the global pie in apparels trade is expected to expand considerably in view of the increase in demand, and also on account of the envisaged...

Current efforts to explain the implications of China’s growing economic attractiveness for development in other regions provide a framework that distinguishes between complimentary and competitive impact. From the perspective of competitive impact analysis its direct trade related...

This paper analyses the expansion of China’s clothing industry in world textile value chains. Using data from interviews and observations throughout factory visits in China and other countries we show how private Guangdong entrepreneurs started China’s clothing manufacturing. Lacking...