With over 50 articles on trade in services, this Trade Forum collection has relevant information for export and development strategy-makers, as well as service providers and those who support them.

Services are the fastest-growing component of international trade.

In recent years, technology advances have had a tremendous impact on the sector as many services can now be marketed and delivered online. However, the service sector is diverse and fragmented and, therefore, difficult to reach.

Study after study shows that services — and service exporting — are generally misunderstood. Creating awareness about service exporters and their needs is the first step to increasing trade in this promising area for developing countries.

Developing country businesses can shape their trade future.

What it takes: knowing the market, spotting the barriers and voicing interests in the right channels.

Services players in several developing countries are setting up coalitions for collaboration to boost the sector.

In many developing countries, not being taken seriously in the global marketplace is the single greatest barrier to exporting services. Building credibility abroad is the springboard to success.

Because many national strategy-makers and businesses are not aware of the potential of service exports, they do not tap into this growing opportunity. Raising awareness about services is an important first step.

Trade support institutions can promote national strengths in services. This helps firms in their own marketing and improves the country’s overall image.

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Services as export and development opportunities

Challenges

National development plans often exclude the service sector.

Tourism — the world’s largest industry — is both an export and a development opportunity for many poor countries.

It is estimated that by 2020, three times as many people will travel as do today. Developing countries are recognizing the tourism sector’s potential contribution to national development goals, particularly by creating employment opportunities, stimulating small businesses and reducing poverty.

Large corporations in the tourism sector are finding that investing in local community development brings healthy returns.

An interview with the manager of Hotel Sofitel in Bahia, Brazil, gives an example of corporate social responsibility in practice.

Debates thrive between African and developed nations over a “Marshall

Plan” for Africa, debt cancellation and support for small firms. To

ensure competitiveness, Africa’s own financial institutions must point

the way in supporting trade and investment.

Business and professional services form more than a third of global service exports — and their share continues to grow.

According to the International Monetary Fund, business and professional services have been the fastest-growing sector of world trade from an export earnings perspective since the General Agreement on Trade in Services was launched in 1995, with an average annual growth rate of 7.6%. This compares with growth of 4.9% for goods exports and 3.8% for tourism. Since 1999, the average annual growth rate has risen to 8.9%.

Professionals with disabilities are often overlooked in trade, telecommunications and economic development policies. Service providers from this community, however, are using technology to unlock their diverse talents and reach out to new markets.

Services contribute to everything a society produces. Even getting goods to market is heavily linked to services. Take, for example, a 5-kilo bag of rice exported from Pakistan to Europe. How does the rice move from the exporter to the consumer?

ITC reviewed its progress in helping countries to supply world markets at the Joint Advisory Group on the International Trade Centre, its annual meeting with beneficiaries and donors (Geneva, 18–22 April). Representatives from 93 developed and developing countries participated in the event, which studies ITC’s work in the previous year and sets priorities for the year to come.

The world of trade grows ever more competitive. Nonetheless, North and South, people keep turning to trade as a tool for development. Why? Because trade makes a difference to improving the lives of the poor, as we see from our projects. In rural Bolivia, for example, the growing Brazil nut industry is lifting thousands of workers and their families out of poverty, while helping to protect the Amazon rainforest. Halfway around the world, Ghana’s new horticultural exports are raising poor farmers’ incomes, with expected sales of €30 million in 2005.

Initiatives such as these present powerful ways to help fulfil the Millennium Development Goals and Doha Development Agenda expectations.

Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, met ITC officials in April to discuss developing essential-oil exports, inspired by the success of an ITC-facilitated project in neighbouring Burundi.