Tales from the development frontier : how China and other countries harness light manufacturing to create jobs and prosperity

Despite widespread agreement among economists that labor-intensive manufacturing has contributed mightily to rapid development in China and other fast-growing economies, most developing countries have had little success in raising the share of manufacturing in production, employment, or exports. Tales from the Development Frontier recounts efforts to establish light manufacturing clusters in several Asian and African countries, looking in particular at China. A companion volume to Light Manufacturing in Africa—which laid out a strategy for injecting new industrial growth nodes into African economies—Tales from the Development Frontier focuses on the six main binding constraints to competitiveness that nascent light manufacturing industries must overcome in developing countries: the availability, cost, and quality of inputs; access to industrial land; access to finance; trade logistics; entrepreneurial capabilities, both technical and managerial; and worker skills. The volume systematically explores potential growth opportunities in light manufacturing in a carefully selected subset of industries: agribusiness, apparel, leather goods, wood-working, and metal products. It specifies the constraints that need to be addressed before local and international entrepreneurs can take advantage of the latent comparative advantage available to many low-income economies in the target industries. It also proposes policies to ease the constraints—policies that can open the door to rapid increases in industrial output, employment, productivity, and exports. The outcomes described in this volume include both inspiring successes and miserable failures in addressing the binding constraints in the identified sectors. These examples reveal how and why industrial development efforts in poor countries—where, by definition, underlying conditions are far from ideal—can accelerate growth. Most of the firms described in a series of case studies started from a very simple and modest base in an environment full of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.With its rich array of new material, this book will support the ongoing research of policy analysts focused on China and other developing countries. Above all, the volume aims to embolden business entrepreneurs and government officials in low-income countries to pursue newly emerging opportunities to expand and accelerate the growth of light manufacturing in their home economies. Tales From The Development Frontier Is An Important Publication That Presents Analytical Reviews And Case Studies That Show How Selected Developing Countries Have Developed Light Manufacturing To Create Jobs And Foster Prosperity. China's Emergence As A Powerhouse In Light Manufacturing Is A Major Focus Of This Volume, But Other Countries In Africa And Asia Are Also Included. Mindful Of The Adage That There Is As Much To Learn From Success As Failure, The Case Studies Examined In This Book Cover Both Triumphs And Disappointments, Eliciting From Them Lessons On The Development Of Light Manufacturing And How This Sector Can Be Leveraged To Accelerate Growth In Poor Countries Where The Initial Conditions May Not Be Quite Ideal. The Book Brings Out The Role Of Focused, Targeted Initiatives That Can Help Break The Poverty Trap And Ignite Growth That Begins Small But Can Eventually Lift Broader Segments Of The Economy.^ Each Successful Enterprise Or Industry Described In This Book Began As A Family Workshop, A Microenterprise, Or A Group Of Small Entrepreneurs Meeting A Limited Demand In A Small Area. Although These Fledgling Ventures Confronted Market, Institutional, And Regulatory Environments Loaded With Daunting Obstacles, They Managed To Find Room For Organic Growth, Supported By Focused Government Policy Interventions To Ease The Binding Constraints. At Some Point, Though Not Necessarily At First, Cooperation And Even Partnership With Government Policy Makers Helped To Power A Gradual Transformation That Turned Small Informal Firms Into Modern Corporations Capable Of Establishing National And, Eventually, International Distribution Networks.^ The Book Argues That This Sequence Of Ground-level Entry And Gradual Organic Growth To A Larger Scale Represents A Common Element In The Growth Of Light Manufacturing In The United Kingdom And Other Early Developers, As Well As The Recent Successes Such As China. China's Emergence As A Powerhouse In Light Manufacturing Is A Major Focus Of This Volume, But Other Countries In Africa And Asia Are Also Included. Mindful Of The Adage That There Is As Much To Learn From Success As Failure, The Case Studies Examined In This Book Cover Both Triumphs And Disappointments, Eliciting From Them Lessons On The Development Of Light Manufacturing And How This Sector Can Be Leveraged To Accelerate Growth In Poor Countries Where The Initial Conditions May Not Be Quite Ideal. Introduction -- Tales Of China. The Development Of Light Manufacturing ; Resolving The Binding Constraints ; Major Policy Tools ; Case Studies, China : Individual Firms And Entrepreneurs ; Case Studies, China : Industrial Parks And Insudtrial Clusters -- Tales Of Other Countries. Agribusiness ; Wood Products ; Leather Products ; Textiles And Apparel -- Policy Lessons. The Chinese Policy Experience ; Policy Lessons For Developing Countries -- Appendix : Interview Questionnaire. Hinh T. Dinh, Thomas G. Rawski, Ali Zafar, Lihong Wang, And Eleonora Mavroeidi With Xin Tong And Pengfei Li. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Despite widespread agreement among economists that labor-intensive manufacturing has contributed mightily to rapid development in China and other fast-growing economies, most developing countries have had little success in raising the share of manufacturing in production, employment, or exports. Tales from the Development Frontier recounts efforts to establish light manufacturing clusters in several Asian and African countries, looking in particular at China. A companion volume to Light Manufacturing in Africawhich laid out a strategy for injecting new industrial growth nodes into African economies Tales from the Development Frontier focuses on the six main binding constraints to competitiveness that nascent light manufacturing industries must overcome in developing the availability, cost, and quality of inputs; access to industrial land; access to finance; trade logistics; entrepreneurial capabilities, both technical and managerial; and worker skills. The volume systematically explores potential growth opportunities in light manufacturing in a carefully selected subset of agribusiness, apparel, leather goods, wood-working, and metal products. It specifies the constraints that need to be addressed before local and international entrepreneurs can take advantage of the latent comparative advantage available to many low-income economies in the target industries. It also proposes policies to ease the constraints-policies that can open the door to rapid increases in industrial output, employment, productivity, and exports. The outcomes described in this volume include both inspiring successes and miserable failures in addressing the binding constraints in the identified sectors. These examples reveal how and why industrial development efforts in poor countrieswhere, by definition, underlying conditions are far from idealcan accelerate growth. Most of the firms described in a series of case studies started from a very simple and modest base in an environment full of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. With its rich array of new material, this book will support the ongoing research of policy analysts focused on China and other developing countries. Above all, the volume aims to embolden business entrepreneurs and government officials in low-income countries to pursue newly emerging opportunities to expand and accelerate the growth of light manufacturing in their home economies. Tales from the Development Frontier presents analytical reviews and case studies that show how selected countries have developed light manufacturing to create jobs and foster prosperity. The focus is on China, a current powerhouse in light manufacturing, but the volume also analyzes a selection of countries in Africa and Asia.