Title: The impact of the Asian drivers on innovation and development strategies: lesson from Sub-Saharan Africa experience

Authors: Raphael Kaplinsky

Addresses: Department of Policy and Practice, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

Abstract: This paper focuses on the impact of the Asian Driver (AD) economies (notably China and India) on the historic commitment by many low income economies to industrialisation. It focuses on recent experience in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to show that (excluding South Africa) the only significant manufactured export has been clothing and that the removal of quotas on Chinese exports shows clearly that SSA is unable to withstand Asian competition in global markets. Rents have thus been significantly reduced in many sectors of manufacturing. But at the same time, there are neglected opportunities for generating and appropriating rents in agriculture and services. Thus, the focus for development strategies targeting sustainable incomes needs to shift from industrialisation to innovation, and within that, to the endogenisation of learning capabilities in an appropriate comprehensive innovation strategy.

Keywords: terms of trade; innovation policy; industrialisation; China; India; Sub-Saharan Africa; economic development; Asian competition in global markets; globalisation; innovation strategy; technological learning; low income economies.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTLID.2007.015019

International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, 2007 Vol.1 No.1, pp.65 - 82

Published online: 04 Sep 2007 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article