- There have been big variations in industrial performance, evident in both
developed and developing countries, due to the changes in the global industrial
activity.
- Manufacturing activity remains heavily concentrated in industrialized countries,
though developing countries are increasing their share. In intensity of industrialization,
developing countries still lag far behind.
- East Asia (including China) is the best industrial performer in most respects,
though it lags slightly in manufacturing value added per capita. It has the
highest growth rates in manufacturing production and exports. It is far more
export oriented than other developing regions. It has a more technologically
advanced structure and is rapidly improving all the main structural drivers
of industrial performance. And East Asia (excluding China) has a commanding
lead in skill creation, research and development (R&D) and technology
licensing.
- Latin America and the Caribbean leads developing regions in manufacturing
value added per capita and foreign direct investment. It has strong skills,
an established export base and good infrastructure for information and communication
technologies, and it leverages foreign technology effectively. But its manufacturing
production and exports are based on a weak technological structure, particularly
if Mexico is excluded. The region lags well behind East Asia in domestic technology
effort. Even Mexico, the outlier in technology upgrading because of the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), suffers from a weak R&D base.
- South Asia has attained decent manufacturing growth but performs poorly
in production per capita and exports. Its export structure is weak and stagnant.
It lags in skills creation, domestic technological effort and physical infrastructure—
and is relatively isolated from inflows of technology. The region’s two
largest economies, India and Pakistan, have not attracted much FDI to producing
for export markets.
- The Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey taken together, have achieved
fair manufacturing value added per capita, a reasonable base of skills and
infrastructure, and good access to foreign technology. But its industrial
and export structures are not geared to technology upgrading, and its domestic
technological effort is weak.
- Sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa, lags behind all other regions
in almost all respects. The technological structure of its industrial production
and exports is regressing.
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