Export Promotion as a Development Strategy: Evidence from Selected Southeast Asian Countries and Lessons for Ghana

Abstract

Developing countries have adopted various development strategies such as import substitution industrialization (ISI) and export promotion strategies. For Latin-American and developing countries, some level of economic growth was experienced using ISI after the Second World War. However, these countries could not attain the needed economic growth, technological advancement or guarantee food security with the adoption of ISI. It led to unequal income distribution, less internal competition, and distortions of their economy, among others. The rise of export promotion strategies in the 1970s was evidenced by an impressive economic growth and a decline in poverty in jurisdictions like Taiwan, Tanzania and among the Asian Tigers. The aim of this paper is to analyze the rationale behind the adoption of export promotion strategy vis-à-vis its application, successes, and failures in some selected Southeast Asian Countries. Furthermore, the world is currently faced with COVID-19 pandemic, a dire health crisis having economic implications across the globe. This crisis has triggered countries including selected Southeast Asian economies to develop new strategies. Using literature, this paper argues that Ghana can improve its export promotion strategy by drawing lessons from these Southeast Asian countries pre and during the COVID-19 era.