Trade has proven to be a powerful engine of growth worldwide. But not all countries have benefited equally. Despite much effort to use trade policy to catalyze exports, many developing countries have failed to achieve successful, sustainable export and economic growth. Even with the benefit of...

Transport and logistics infrastructure is a critical determinant of the competitiveness of a country's producers and exporters. Well-functioning transport and logistics infrastructure relies not just on hardware, but critically on the operating environment that emerges from the interaction...

In recent decades, as integration of global trade and investment has accelerated, many countries both developing and developed have experienced widening disparities of output and income across regions within their borders. The emergence of entrenched 'leading' and 'lagging' regions is becoming...

This note is a background study to assess policy options to improve competitiveness of Kenya's manufacturing sector, with a specific focus on exports. The focus is on export performance in the manufacturing sector overall and drawing on analysis of four specific manufacturing sectors - apparel,...

The Indonesian manufacturing sector experienced a 'lost decade' in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis. While many believe that the sector is now in inexorable decline, this note argues that there may be a 'second chance' for export manufacturing, given Indonesia's relative cost...

The global economic crisis has forced a major rethinking of the respective roles of governments and markets in the processes of trade and growth. Indeed, industrial policy seems to be back in fashion or, at least, talking about it is. But a renewed 'activism' by government in the trade and...