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Keywords
artificial intelligence; competitiveness; trade information; trade flows;
trade development; trade maps; SMEs case studies (Finland, Ireland,
Singapore, New Zealand, Mauritius, Republic of Korea); disruptive
innovation; globalization; strategies; value added chain concept
Contents
Preface��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ix
International Trade
Promotion: Why and How
With the progressive liberalization of markets on the long term, the global-
ization process implies for local firms as well as for governments more and
stiffer competition, at home as well as on the international marketplace.
Now more than ever, the competitive advantages that any firm or
country possesses become smaller and less durable. Enterprise manag-
ers are facing realities: becoming globally competitive, pursuing new
commercial opportunities (in line with the market liberalization),
or conduct “business as usual,” with inevitably diminishing sales
and profit.
At national level, the long-term implications are also dramatic. In any
country, and more specifically, the concerned government, establishes
and maintains a business environment (even in an increased international
competition) in order to encourage local entrepreneurs to invest, to help
increasing employment, to generate specialized skills and support innova-
tion and new technologies, with the goal of making profits (fairly taxed)
and finally to become a competitive global player.
If none of the above, the business sector will suffer and will not be
able to take advantage of emerging international export opportunities
and trade performance will inevitably deteriorate. This is a particularly
challenging scenario for the public-sector planner and strategy-maker
in a developing or transition economy. There, the private sector may be
fragile, with day-to-day survival concerns rather than long-term develop-
ment, and would be unable to take any kind of leadership role in response
to the rigors of new global competition. Therefore, the challenge is intro-
ducing and managing an effective national export strategy (NES).
2 Global Trade Strategies
• purchase information,
• cover initial market contact and exploration costs, and
• invest in technological innovations.
simply deal with offshore market development and promotion, but should
integrate the longer-term onshore challenges of establishing a national
competitiveness framework, creating an export culture and national con-
sensus, thus developing new export industries.
Of course, this building process implies a clear policy statement and
orientation: such a choice is obvious for small or limited resources coun-
tries (e.g., Singapore), but not so for the large ones (Brazil, Indonesia,
even the United States, for which exports represent a relatively smaller
share of GDP component).
In short, export strategy should address the issue of current and
future international competitiveness throughout the country’s supply
chain.
This leads to the conclusion that the process of managing NES
implies the direct and substantive involvement of all relevant min-
istries in the strategy management process: industry, agriculture,
transport and public utilities, labor, education, foreign affairs and, of
course, finance, with interministerial consultations at the highest level
of decision making.
Then comes the fundamental issue of the public–private sector
partnership.
For the strategy to work, the private sector is a key, if not the key player
for the implementation of the strategy, which must be fully involved in
the overall process—not just consulted but involved.
The private sector must ”buy in” and feel responsible for the success
or failure of the strategy. If this is obvious and well understood in many
open markets countries, it is more difficult to put into practice in some
“transition” economies with the former state trading companies.
The next step concerns the process of strategy development and man-
agement, reviewing the basic question of leadership and ownership.