We learned three lessons.
The first lesson is that new export opportunities, for the most
part, have little to do with those of the past. The opportunities
are about finding niche products for niche markets; moving up the
value chain through processing and design; responding to the
ever-rising demand from consumers for higher-quality standards;
entering brand-new markets like services; or shortening the
distribution chain to capture a greater share of the value.
The second lesson is that the trade liberalization effort of the
past decade helped in opening up many of those new opportunities.
But work must continue on lowering trade barriers, because LDC
exporters at times continue to see their efforts frustrated by
certain barriers in importing countries.
The third lesson from the exporters - confirmed by public
officials with us at the Business Sector Round Table - is that
there is a lot that government and business together can and must
do, in their countries, to improve the environment for many other
entrepreneurs to emerge and grow.
Countries have made great strides in improving the macro
environment for business, but more remains to be done, often
including efforts on the legal and good governance front.
Enforcement of the rule of law, including enforcement of contracts
and elimination of corruption, often remain problem areas for
business.
Exporters also tell us that much needs to be done to improve the
support infrastructure for exports. This includes not only the
obvious hard infrastructure of roads, airports, seaports, energy,
water and telecommunications, but also the support services that
are key to improving competitiveness of export enterprises: trade
financing services, quality management services, trade facilitation
(including customs inspections and customs clearance), trade
information and so on. Exporters are clear: countries require
technical advice and assistance for national capacity building.
Another important point made by exporters is that, next to
working on improving the enabling environment, governments need to
focus efforts and resources on a limited number of priority
sectors, to make the export development drive successful.
Last, the exporters share with us another very hopeful message:
work on the export front can help alleviate poverty by bringing
income and jobs directly to the poorest in their society."
J. Denis Bélisle, Executive Director, ITC,
at the Business Sector Round Table,
Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries,
May 2001
Opportunities in Adversity
A new generation of entrepreneurs
A new generation of modern business people from LDCs have made a
success by exploiting business opportunities through innovation,
hard work, progress management and an understanding of a
fast-changing and increasingly demanding international business
environment.
To succeed broadly in the highly competitive and changing
international markets, LDCs and their exporters need:
- access to state-of-the-art technologies and
infrastructure;
- a national enabling environment underpinned by good trade
policies and strategies;
- top-notch trade support and business advisory services to
facilitate production and marketing; as well as
- reliable partners to help fulfil these needs.
Sound policies and strategies
Export-friendly policies and strategies are essential for LDC
exporters to take advantage of apportunities provided by the
multilateral trading system. ITC assists LDCs in the formulation of
sectoral and national export strategies and to develop
enterprise-level strategies for product development and market
penetration.
Efficient trade support and business services
ITC specializes in providing targeted trade support and business
advisory services to exproters in LDCs. These can help LDC firms to
meet quality and standards requirements, improving packaging and
design, access export finance, apply benchmarking tools and guage
export competitiveness.
Reliable partners
Exporters in LDCs are well poised to capitalize on business
opportunities. They require strong support, guidance and
encouragement from the entire network of trade support
institutions, policy- and strategy-makers and from LDCs'
development partners such as ITC to provide them with modern tools
so that as new opportunities evolve, LDC exporters will innovate
and adapt to new challenges and emerge as champions.
State-of-the-art technologies and infrastructure
ITC offers LDC partners tools to maximize opportunities and
minimize risks of international trading in the digital age and can
help them improve the international competitiveness of SMEs. It
provides support for drawing up integrated e-trade action plans,
enhancing e-readiness and building e-trade networks.