Economists and the media continue to focus on goods production as driving economic growth when it is actually the service sector that holds the key to our development. Information technology and telecommunications, the backbone of service delivery, have made it possible for young people to remain in rural communities and find good jobs through telecommuting or back office operations. Service firms continue to search for appropriately-skilled employees while manufacturers are laying off workers.

In developing economies, it is the growth of specialized business and professional services that drives overall competitiveness. Service enterprises create jobs, provide key industrial inputs, and are instrumental in poverty alleviation and balanced growth. All developing economies are already exporting on average 68 different services to an average of 33 export markets, 67 percent of which are other developing economies. The primary challenges these service exporters face are (a) lack of awareness and support from their own governments, (b) difficulty entering export markets as temporary business travelers, (c) a dearth of appropriately-skilled workers, and (d) non-competitive telecommunication and internet infrastructure.

Many of the resources created by Service-Growth Consultants on how to develop, manage, and export services can be found through the following links: