Abstract
Developing countries as a whole have been remarkably successful in diversifying their economies and their export structures. This process of diversification has taken many forms. The most prominent change has been the shift toward industry. In the 1960s, some 80 percent of developing country exports were primary commodities; today, almost 80 percent are industrial products. This massive transformation in export structure has been associated with the rise of major industrial power-houses, China most prominently, but also countries such as Korea, India, Brazil, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Mexico. Most of these new industrial powers were previously primary-based economies. Today they are deeply integrated into global production networks across a wide range of sectors, participating in rapidly growing South–South trade, and in most cases rapidly upgrading the sophistication of their export mix.
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