Susan Lund, James Manyika, and Michael Spence
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eventually in modern, high-tech factories that can compete with those
in the rest o the world. Bangladesh, India, and Vietnam have taken
some positive steps but will need to do more.
Whether services can drive the kind o rapid growth in early stage
developing countries that manufacturing once did remains to be seen.
Some low-income countries, such as Ghana, India, and the Philip-
pines, have thriving service industries catering to businesses around
the world. But even in those countries, the services-export sector em-
ploys few people and contributes little to ³²¡. Like middle-income
countries, low-income ones will need to shift to higher-value activities
to stay ahead o automation. Tradable services, such as transportation,
Ãnance, and business services, enjoy high productivity growth and
can raise living standards, but less tradable ones, such as food prepara-
tion, health care, and education, which employ millions more people,
thus far show little productivity growth, making them a poor engine
for long-term prosperity.
Technology may enable some people in low-income economies to
jump ahead in economic development without retracing the paths
taken by those in advanced economies. Internet access allows workers
everywhere to use online freelance platforms, such as UpWork, Fiverr,
and Samasource, to earn supplemental income. A large share o the
freelancers on these platforms are in developing countries. Khan
Academy and Coursera teach languages and other skills. Google
Translate is removing language barriers. Kiva and Kickstarter help
aspiring entrepreneurs fund their start-ups. And telemedicine ser-
vices make better health care available to people in remote places. But
using those services requires widespread access to aordable high-
speed Internet. Countries need to invest in digital infrastructure and
education i they are to succeed in a global digital economy. Although
many countries have achieved near-universal primary schooling, get-
ting students to complete secondary school and making sure they re-
ceive a high-quality education when there are the next hurdles.
Trade has done more than almost anything else to cut global pov-
erty. I developing countries shift strategies to take advantage o the
next wave o globalization, trade can continue to lift people out o
poverty and into the middle class. It is advanced economies, however,
that need to change their outlook the most dramatically. They are
shutting themselves o from the outside world at the very moment
when they should be welcoming it in.∂