Introduction: Significance of Developing Country Exports of Technology

Abstract

A number of developing countries with experience of industrialization are emerging on the international scene as exporters of manufacturing, construction, management, financial and other forms of technology. Those that possess local capital-goods manufacturing sectors are able to export the technical know-how and equipment required to set up a range of manufacturing industries abroad, the leading examples being India, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan.¹ Those that have sufficient experience of operating equipment imported from abroad are able to export the capability to organize, produce and sell in foreign locations by the medium of direct investments, the main examples being Hong Kong and Singapore.² In construction and other service sectors, countries which have built up the relevant skills and infrastructure, and which possess the right blend of cost advantages and government support, have shown themselves capable of winning substantial foreign contracts and exporting their know-how: Korea, Taiwan, India, Pakistan and Egypt in Asia and Africa, and Argentina, Mexico and Brazil in Latin America, are particularly active in these spheres. Exports of technology appear to be among the most dynamic elements of these countries’ manufactured exports, and they are directed not only at other less-developed countries but even, in some cases, at the advanced industrial countries.